Oracle Makes Grid Computing PushOracle Makes Grid Computing Push

Oracle debuted the next generation of its database and application-server software, touting the new products' self-management capabilities, clustering technology, and other features as the IT industry's biggest effort to date to bring grid computing to mainstream users.

But it will be late this year at the earliest before Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Application Server 10g are generally available, say Oracle executives at the company's annual OracleWorld conference in San Francisco. Pricing for the software also hasn't been set.

Grid computing ties together processing power and data storage into a centralized pool of IT resources that can be dynamically allocated based on need, resulting in more-efficient use of those resources and lower costs. For example, servers devoted to processing a company's payroll twice a month can be switched to other chores the rest of the time.

While grid computing now is more commonly used in scientific and technical applications, the concept is starting to catch on among mainstream users. But it has a long way to go to make the top of most IS-management priority lists: Only 11% of the 300 IS executives surveyed by information in June said grid computing projects were a priority this year--dead last among 48 technologies they were asked about.

The capabilities within the new Oracle software are designed to make it easier for IT organizations to implement and administer grid-computing systems, Oracle executive VP Chuck Phillips told OracleWorld attendees Monday. Grid computing is rapidly becoming a battleground between Oracle and IBM, which has been building automated-management capabilities into its database and application server software.

Jeremy Foreman, a computer systems analyst and the database administrator in the state of New Mexico's transportation department, has been testing Oracle Database 10g. He says the automation capabilities have freed him up to do more strategic development work. "Being the sole DBA means I don't have a lot of time to spend troubleshooting problems," he says.

Oracle's Real Application Clusters software, which debuted as part of Oracle9i, is a critical component of the grid-computing push. Oracle Database 10g offers new self-management capabilities that automate performance-diagnostic chores, memory management, and application tuning. Database Control, a new Web-based database-monitoring console, is based on the new Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g software.

Also new in Oracle Database 10g is automatic storage-management software that hides the underlying complexity of how a database works with data files and storage subsystems. A new release of Oracle Real Application Clusters includes tools that make it easier to assemble database clusters and new workload-management tools for managing computing capacity within a cluster.

The Oracle Application Server 10g has new integration features and enhanced Web-services technology that make it easier to create a single data model for grid computing. But Oracle's products are designed for grid computing in homogeneous IT environments with common servers and compatible applications and database systems, a requirement that doesn't match the reality of the heterogeneous environments found in many IT shops.

Grid computing and the new software will be the focus of a keynote speech by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison Tuesday afternoon. Presentations by Chuck Rozwat, server technologies executive VP, and product strategy VP Ken Jacobs on Wednesday also will provide more details about the new software.

Also at OracleWorld, Dell CEO Michael Dell delivered a keynote speech in which he argued that the performance of Dell's low-cost, Intel-based servers will increase 250% in the next three years, beating RISC/Unix servers from competitors such as Sun Microsystems in price and performance.

Dell also said that his company is working with other, unnamed vendors to develop standards for blade computing systems. Dell, who broke his ankle in a horse-riding accident during the weekend, delivered his keynote after hobbling onstage on crutches.