eServer Magazine: IBM Takes on Grid computing

[ Thanks to Kellie
for this link. ]

“I’m looking for aliens.

“OK, I’m not really looking for aliens; it’s more accurate to
say I’m listening for aliens. By downloading and installing a free
data analysis screen saver from Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI) at Home, I’ve joined millions of other PC
owners worldwide in assisting SETI. When idle, my computer crunches
a fragment of radio data downloaded from SETI at the University of
California, Berkeley. The fragment, received from space at the
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, is analyzed for patterns that
could be extraterrestrial in origin. Maybe, just maybe, a signal
fragment analyzed on my system will one day prove to be the first
interstellar, ‘Hello, we’re here!’ ever recorded.

“Rather than countless PCs sharing tasks, imagine a large
cluster of mainframes and other servers acting as a single
integrated computing system that can be accessed by home- or
business-based PCs. Beyond simply sharing files and information,
users can access an extensive grid of high-end enterprise computers
via the Internet, using idle compute cycles to crunch massive
amounts of data. Certified users could access super-computing
resources, computing clusters, data-storage systems, data sources
and even network with other grid users. Taking it even further,
users could create entire virtual organizations with complex
business processes running remotely. The only costs involved are
likely to be those charged to lease grid resources…”

Complete Story