Oracle joins EGA

BANGALORE: Oracle has joined industry leaders in founding the Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA), a consortium created to develop enterprise grid solutions and accelerate the deployment of grid computing.

Enterprise grid computing is capable of delivering a number of benefits including resource sharing, incremental scaling and reduction in IT requirements. A combination of complementary products, rather than a single offering, is necessary for grid computing. For example, Oracle Database 10g enables clusters of machines to operate as a single entity, while blade servers and storage-area networks provide a crucial piece of a grid environment.

According to the press release, through its involvement with the EGA, Oracle will help develop interoperable systems, bringing together the many pieces of the enterprise grid-computing puzzle. The EGA is an open, independent and vendor-neutral community addressing the near-term requirements for deploying commercial applications in a grid environment. Initial focus areas include reference models, provisioning, security and accounting.

The alliance will address obstacles that organizations face in using enterprise grids through open, interoperable solutions and best practices. By focusing exclusively on the needs of enterprise users, the EGA will enable businesses to realize the many benefits of grid computing such as faster response to changing business needs, better utilization and service level performance and lower IT operating costs.

Representing a broad cross-section of leading technology companies, Oracle will join additional founding members - EMC, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP, NEC, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems - to drive adoption of grid computing. Specifically, the board of directors will participate in and chair committees and vote to approve the consortium's output and core capabilities.