Grid Computing Products and Services

12 Grid Computing Products and Services

integrable and must have autonomic capabilities. Grid computing leverages on

demand because it is a fundamental component to achieve the highest degree of

virtualization, one of the key factors of the on demand operating environment.

Grid is also leveraged when its implementation complies with open standards; it

is integrated into the business processes of the organization, and its components

have autonomic abilities.

Grid and UMI

In an on demand enterprise, once the business and the IT infrastructure are

flexible, it is possible to think of new ways to make the IT services and other

enterprise services profitable. UMI (Utility Management Infrastructure) is a model

or specification of how the IT services can be acquired and paid as though they

were a service provided by a traditional utility. Utilities use the “pay per usage”

payment method. UMI conceptually establishes what components a utility must

have to provide IT services and their consumers pay per usage. It means

variable costs for the clients. It also means, for the IT utility provider, that the

infrastructure can be reused and shared. Grid computing capabilities are a

reasonable option to implement an IT utility, but not the only choice. Grid

provides provisioning, metering, billing, and mechanisms to use idle resources,

sharing of portions of resources, and security and management. All of them are

required qualities to implement an infrastructure aligned with UMI.

Grid and virtualization

Virtualization is the ability to provide a unified vision of a set of resources. These

resources may be geographically distributed, run on different technologies, and

developed by different vendors. Virtualization is one of the key elements of the on

demand operating environment, and essential on grid implementations. More

information about on demand operating environment can be found at:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/

Grid and provisioning

As explained in “Provisioning” on page 86, provisioning mechanisms can provide

on demand additional resources to the grid. Alternately, the grid can provide

resources as well. Both can live independently, coexist in the same infrastructure,

and be leveraged if they are well integrated.

1.2 Categories and functions

Grid computing is a concept that can be studied in several ways. The information

contained in this redbook has been classified and analyzed according to cross

criteria, categories, and functions.

Chapter 1. Introduction 13

Categories are related to the layers in a grid stack products’ portfolio, as shown in

Figure 1-1. Categories help the reader relate products with their role and scope

within a grid. IT Architects will find the categories to be a technical reference to

help them find the right products for their solutions. Categories will also be useful

to understand the scope of the professional services that should be implemented

to satisfy the requirements of a solution. IT architects must consider business,

functional, and non-functional requirements that should be fulfilled by the

infrastructure and the services that a product and a category of the grid layer can

provide.

1.2.1 Categorization of components

The layer structure, or grid stack (Figure 1-1), of the grid components is an

creation of the traditional IT industry.

Figure 1-1 Grid stack products’ portfolio

Application

This layer describes an environment for developed applications to take

advantage of the whole set of features provided by the grid. Applications can

make use of all layers in the stack, through classes, APIs, frameworks, toolkits, or

Software Development Kit (SDKs).

Grid Middleware

File and Block Data Virtualization

Structured Data Virtualization

Job Scheduling

Software licensing

Systems Management

Workload Management

Task Scheduling

Orchestration and Provisioning

Billing and Metering

Content Management

Applications

Grid Middleware

File and Block Data Virtualization

Structured Data Virtualization

Job Scheduling

Software licensing

Systems Management

Workload Management

Task Scheduling

Orchestration and Provisioning

Billing and Metering

Content Management

Applications