IBM brings autonomic computing to grid environments The software, called IBM Batch-on-Grid, allows organisations to continue operating during system failures, disasters or while complex applications are being updated across a grid environment. It automatically accommodates spikes and lulls in computing workload - the amount of work a system is handling at any given time - by allocating servers on the fly, helping ensure IT systems run around the clock. IBM Batch-on-Grid blends self-managing autonomic computing with technology borrowed from a mainstay programming technique called ‘batch computing,’ which originated in the 1950s and is still used by thousands of finance, government and industrial customers. In batch computing, various computing jobs are submitted to queues and then scheduled for processing. Batch-on-Grid creates batch workloads within grid computing environments, and then uses autonomic technology to automatically schedule and balance those workloads, which delivers capacity when needed and lowers costs. Organisations can automatically shift grid workloads so that the most important jobs are taken care of first. For example, an organisation can limit a server to 95 percent capacity, and when a server approaches that threshold, the software will instantly shift the workload on demand to another server. This helps ensure a continuous service. The software also allows IT departments to accurately forecast workloads for high-priority projects, such as getting new employees up and running after an acquisition, and ensures that enough capacity is available. In this way, companies can plan for computing resources to deal with high priority jobs and be able to budget and account for costs associated with those resources. "As Grid computing grows in popularity, IBM is helping organisations simplify the management of grids and better respond to changes in their business and in the market," said Bob Madey, vice president of strategy, IBM Tivoli software. "By incorporating self-managing autonomic software into workload management, we're able to help ensure our clients' systems remain up and running at all times." The software can operate within a service oriented architecture (SOA), so it can balance computing workloads in the most complex, heterogeneous IT environments -- for virtually any type of application or computing job. This prevents companies from having to spend time and resources developing multiple workload management processes for every different kind of application. As IT organisations are increasingly building SOAs to more easily integrate new and existing software on multiple platforms, the software allows them to manage their IT workloads regardless of what type of application or underlying technology is involved.
•Date: 12th May 2006• Region: World • Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity |
