Emerging Technologies Will Transform the Internet as we Know It Resource-demanding processes of the business world such as large-scale collaboration projects that involve product design, financial analysis, in-depth research and development are limited by World Wide Web Internet Protocol.
As bandwidth demands continue to increase, the Internet, as we know it, will fall short of facilitating the high-volume throughput needed to move vast amounts of data across it.
In many areas of business communications, those needs will be met once the Grid is fully established - finally deploying the new "information superhighway" that we've heard so much about.
It is my contention the Grid will eventually replace the Internet with a system 10,000 times faster than today's broadband connections.
This vision of IBM will allow users to access as much processing power as they need through a worldwide network of powerful servers.
Understanding the potential offered by the future Grid is helpful knowledge for business decision-makers today.
The Grid differs from the Internet in that it is much more than information sharing among computers connected through the World Wide Web.
The Grid adds to this information sharing by adding processing power.
Part of it already exists: Connecting from CERN's high-energy physics laboratory to 11 locations around the world is a grid of powerful servers connecting some 5,000 scientists at 150 universities.
The Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire, or CERN, is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and is located just outside Geneva, Switzerland at the border with France.
The center was created in 1954 and currently has approximately 20 member nations.
The United States officially has "observer status" within the organization.
These scientists are working on a huge project with an enormous amount of data involved that would, in effect, overwhelm the Internet.
With the Grid, the immense amount of data is stored over the server network - not only giving the scientists access to the project, but also the processing power needed to conduct intensive research.
It is CERN that is pushing development of the Grid just as the particle physics center originally pushed Internet development when scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web there in 1990.
Needing innovation at a time when scientists needed a way to automate information sharing is what's occurring right now at a much more advanced level.
This is what has fueled innovation for the development of the Grid today.
An underlying core problem of the Internet as we currently know it is the multiple data formats used on the millions of connected computers.
This problem makes it difficult for the processing power running on different platforms to all be interpreted and optimized simultaneously.
IBM's project with CERN will result in a much faster global network with networked processing power currently impossible on the World Wide Web.
The focus right now is on connecting the scientists who are driving the need.
The CERN physics project is one example, but the future Grid will connect all who need the extra processing power.
At present, there are approximately 60,000 grid servers currently installed, but that number is expected to grow to 200,000 by the year 2010.
IBM has established goals for development of the Grid: o Build a much faster and more robust system of networked servers that gives scientists the computing power they need to focus on scientific issues of enormous complexity o Establish the Grid as the standard for future resource-sharing for businesses and the public.
IBM and the OGF (Open Grid Forum) have developed a set of standards for Grid sharing known as the OGSA (Open Grid Services Architecture) that defines the services included in the structure by which they are communicated through the network.
Grid development is not abandoning Web standards but is, in fact, building on them with extensions to the WSDL (Web Services Definition Language).
IBM affirmed in 2003 that the Grid will have four focus areas in addition to scientific research: engineering and design, enterprise optimization, business analytics and government development.
Specific commercial markets are being targeted as well with Grid development such as biology/life sciences, aerospace, financial and automotive.
With the power of the Grid, financial analysts can analyze diverse investment portfolios in minutes, pharmacologists could discover new life-saving drugs more quickly and product design time for any business could be minimized.
Public adoption of the Grid is still some 5 to 10 years away.
But, when it does arrive, the blazing-fast speeds would allow for movies and entire music catalogues to be downloaded in seconds and online games with players numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Built into the system will be a "pay for processing" scenario where the additional power is paid for when needed.
The benefits of the Grid over standard World Wide Web information sharing are considerable: o Establishing a standard protocol to allow networked computers to work together o Optimization of a network infrastructure to balance processing demands while providing extra capacity at the same time o Ability to quickly respond to changing market demands as they occur o Ability to interactively collaborate with colleagues across multiple platforms o Sharing of computer resources through the creation of virtualized organizations Some of the Grid protocols have made it to the business world already such as "dynamic switching" that allows for the creation of a dedicated channel through the network for the downloading of large chunks of data.
Another use of the technology outside of the world of CERN was in the development of a new malaria drug.
During the drug discovery process, researchers used the Grid to analyze some 140 million compounds.
Under the current Internet standards, that process would have taken an estimated 420 years.
Know this: The Grid offers much promise for the future.
As applications and work collaboration becomes more intensive, the need for this power becomes greater and greater.
Businesses, as well as scientists, will be able to carry out their tasks in a much more efficient manner.
This emerging technology is certain to revolutionize how we access data, collaborate on projects and how we utilize information technology in our day-to-day activities.
About the Author: Michael G.
Perry has more than 20 years' professional experience in management, IT consulting and writing technical documentation related to business process, policies and procedures.
He's worked for Fedex, Ingram Micro and Merck Medco.
Find out more about how he can help you with emerging technologies and other IT related technologies.
As bandwidth demands continue to increase, the Internet, as we know it, will fall short of facilitating the high-volume throughput needed to move vast amounts of data across it.
In many areas of business communications, those needs will be met once the Grid is fully established - finally deploying the new "information superhighway" that we've heard so much about.
It is my contention the Grid will eventually replace the Internet with a system 10,000 times faster than today's broadband connections.
This vision of IBM will allow users to access as much processing power as they need through a worldwide network of powerful servers.
Understanding the potential offered by the future Grid is helpful knowledge for business decision-makers today.
The Grid differs from the Internet in that it is much more than information sharing among computers connected through the World Wide Web.
The Grid adds to this information sharing by adding processing power.
Part of it already exists: Connecting from CERN's high-energy physics laboratory to 11 locations around the world is a grid of powerful servers connecting some 5,000 scientists at 150 universities.
The Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire, or CERN, is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and is located just outside Geneva, Switzerland at the border with France.
The center was created in 1954 and currently has approximately 20 member nations.
The United States officially has "observer status" within the organization.
These scientists are working on a huge project with an enormous amount of data involved that would, in effect, overwhelm the Internet.
With the Grid, the immense amount of data is stored over the server network - not only giving the scientists access to the project, but also the processing power needed to conduct intensive research.
It is CERN that is pushing development of the Grid just as the particle physics center originally pushed Internet development when scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web there in 1990.
Needing innovation at a time when scientists needed a way to automate information sharing is what's occurring right now at a much more advanced level.
This is what has fueled innovation for the development of the Grid today.
An underlying core problem of the Internet as we currently know it is the multiple data formats used on the millions of connected computers.
This problem makes it difficult for the processing power running on different platforms to all be interpreted and optimized simultaneously.
IBM's project with CERN will result in a much faster global network with networked processing power currently impossible on the World Wide Web.
The focus right now is on connecting the scientists who are driving the need.
The CERN physics project is one example, but the future Grid will connect all who need the extra processing power.
At present, there are approximately 60,000 grid servers currently installed, but that number is expected to grow to 200,000 by the year 2010.
IBM has established goals for development of the Grid: o Build a much faster and more robust system of networked servers that gives scientists the computing power they need to focus on scientific issues of enormous complexity o Establish the Grid as the standard for future resource-sharing for businesses and the public.
IBM and the OGF (Open Grid Forum) have developed a set of standards for Grid sharing known as the OGSA (Open Grid Services Architecture) that defines the services included in the structure by which they are communicated through the network.
Grid development is not abandoning Web standards but is, in fact, building on them with extensions to the WSDL (Web Services Definition Language).
IBM affirmed in 2003 that the Grid will have four focus areas in addition to scientific research: engineering and design, enterprise optimization, business analytics and government development.
Specific commercial markets are being targeted as well with Grid development such as biology/life sciences, aerospace, financial and automotive.
With the power of the Grid, financial analysts can analyze diverse investment portfolios in minutes, pharmacologists could discover new life-saving drugs more quickly and product design time for any business could be minimized.
Public adoption of the Grid is still some 5 to 10 years away.
But, when it does arrive, the blazing-fast speeds would allow for movies and entire music catalogues to be downloaded in seconds and online games with players numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Built into the system will be a "pay for processing" scenario where the additional power is paid for when needed.
The benefits of the Grid over standard World Wide Web information sharing are considerable: o Establishing a standard protocol to allow networked computers to work together o Optimization of a network infrastructure to balance processing demands while providing extra capacity at the same time o Ability to quickly respond to changing market demands as they occur o Ability to interactively collaborate with colleagues across multiple platforms o Sharing of computer resources through the creation of virtualized organizations Some of the Grid protocols have made it to the business world already such as "dynamic switching" that allows for the creation of a dedicated channel through the network for the downloading of large chunks of data.
Another use of the technology outside of the world of CERN was in the development of a new malaria drug.
During the drug discovery process, researchers used the Grid to analyze some 140 million compounds.
Under the current Internet standards, that process would have taken an estimated 420 years.
Know this: The Grid offers much promise for the future.
As applications and work collaboration becomes more intensive, the need for this power becomes greater and greater.
Businesses, as well as scientists, will be able to carry out their tasks in a much more efficient manner.
This emerging technology is certain to revolutionize how we access data, collaborate on projects and how we utilize information technology in our day-to-day activities.
About the Author: Michael G.
Perry has more than 20 years' professional experience in management, IT consulting and writing technical documentation related to business process, policies and procedures.
He's worked for Fedex, Ingram Micro and Merck Medco.
Find out more about how he can help you with emerging technologies and other IT related technologies.