Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide (Savvy Manager's Guides Series)

A decade ago, the corporate world viewed grid computing as a curiosity. Today, it views it as an opportunity-a chance to reduce costs, improve performance, fund new projects, and take advantage of under-utilized capacity. The engineering behind this transformation has been amply documented. Until now, however, little has been written to prepare managers, executives, and other decision-makers to implement grid computing in a sensible and effective way. Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide examines the technology from a rigorous business perspective, equipping you with the practical knowledge you need to assess your options and determine what grid computing approach is right for your enterprise. This book is heavy on real-world experience, distilling from a rich assortment of case studies the best practices currently at work in a variety of industries. Always attentive to grid computing's many competitive advantages, it is also realistic about the challenges of selling the idea to staff and making it a part of your company's culture. Grid Computing has an Online Companion at www.savvygrid.com with contents, details, community forum, and latest updates for the material.

"This book explains grid in simple terms, using practical examples to demonstrate the technical and business benefits of grid and providing hands-on guidance for readers. This is a must read for everyone who is seriously investigating grid or planning to integrate grid technology in their IT environment."
--Wolfgang Gentzsch, Managing Director of Grid Computing and Networking Services, MCNC, Inc.

A decade ago, the corporate world viewed grid computing as a curiosity. Today, it views it as an opportunity--a chance to reduce costs, improve performance, fund new projects, and take advantage of under-utilized capacity. The engineering behind this transformation has been amply documented. Until now, however, little has been written to prepare managers, executives, and other decision-makers to implement grid computing in a sensible and effective way.

Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide examines the technology from a rigorous business perspective, equipping you with the practical knowledge you need to assess your options and determine what grid computing approach is right for your enterprise. This book is heavy on real-world experience, distilling from a rich assortment of case studies the best practices currently at work in a variety of industries. Always attentive to grid computing s many competitive advantages, it is also realistic about the challenges of selling the idea to staff and making it a part of your company s culture.

Features:

+ Sketches the history of grid computing, showing how it made the leap from academia to business.
+ Examines the criteria you ll need to meet to make your network "grid-enabled."
+ Explains how a grid-based solution can be made to meet key organizational requirements, including security, scheduling, data storage, and fault-tolerance.
+ Surveys the approaches currently available and helps you choose the one that will best meet your needs, both now and in the future.
+ Focuses heavily on the competitive advantages you can reap from grid computing, and provides advice on convincing your organization to adopt grid computing and making a successful transition.

About the Authors:

Pawel Plaszczak is CEO at Gridwise Technologies, an independent consulting firm in grid computing. He gained insider s knowledge of grid technologies as a developer with Ian Foster s Globus Project and continues to remain active in the standards community through Global Grid Forum. Richard Wellner, Jr. is a partner at Gridwsie Technologies and also works as an Enterprise Architect with Univa Corporation. He has been involved in the grid community helping to standardize core protocols and to develop new standards and systems centered upon them. Both authors are major contributors to the development of the Globus Toolkit, currently the most widely used grid infrastructure.|"This book explains grid in simple terms, using practical examples to demonstrate the technical and business benefits of grid and providing hands-on guidance for readers. This is a must read for everyone who is seriously investigating grid or planning to integrate grid technology in their IT environment."
--Wolfgang Gentzsch, Managing Director of Grid Computing and Networking Services, MCNC, Inc.

A decade ago, the corporate world viewed grid computing as a curiosity. Today, it views it as an opportunity--a chance to reduce costs, improve performance, fund new projects, and take advantage of under-utilized capacity. The engineering behind this transformation has been amply documented. Until now, however, little has been written to prepare managers, executives, and other decision-makers to implement grid computing in a sensible and effective way.

Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide examines the technology from a rigorous business perspective, equipping you with the practical knowledge you need to assess your options and determine what grid computing approach is right for your enterprise. This book is heavy on real-world experience, distilling from a rich assortment of case studies the best practices currently at work in a variety of industries. Always attentive to grid computing s many competitive advantages, it is also realistic about the challenges of selling the idea to staff and making it a part of your company s culture.

Features:

+ Sketches the history of grid computing, showing how it made the leap from academia to business.
+ Examines the criteria you ll need to meet to make your network "grid-enabled."
+ Explains how a grid-based solution can be made to meet key organizational requirements, including security, scheduling, data storage, and fault-tolerance.
+ Surveys the approaches currently available and helps you choose the one that will best meet your needs, both now and in the future.
+ Focuses heavily on the competitive advantages you can reap from grid computing, and provides advice on convincing your organization to adopt grid computing and making a successful transition.

About the Authors:

Pawel Plaszczak is CEO at Gridwise Technologies, an independent consulting firm in grid computing. He gained insider s knowledge of grid technologies as a developer with Ian Foster s Globus Project and continues to remain active in the standards community through Global Grid Forum. Richard Wellner, Jr. is a partner at Gridwsie Technologies and also works as an Enterprise Architect with Univa Corporation. He has been involved in the grid community helping to standardize core protocols and to develop new standards and systems centered upon them. Both authors are major contributors to the development of the Globus Toolkit, currently the most widely used grid infrastructure.