Oracle Readies Next-Generation Offerings For Grid ComputingOracle Readies Next-Generation Offerings For Grid Computing

The next generation of Oracle's database, application-server, and enterprise-management software, dubbed Oracle10G, will offer new capabilities to facilitate grid computing, Oracle executives say. The software will be unveiled at next month's OracleWorld conference in San Francisco.

Grid computing organizes IT resources in the same way utilities use power grids to leverage unused capacity throughout a computer network. The concept, more commonly used in scientific and technical communities than in commercial businesses, lets users share computer power, data storage, databases, and other services online.

Although there's a perception that widespread adoption of grid computing is 10 or 15 years away, Robert Shimp, Oracle's database product marketing VP, says companies can benefit from grid computing today. The technology will rapidly evolve in the next three to five years, he says.

Last month, IBM began shipping a version of its WebSphere application server for grid computing with the capability to balance workloads between servers operating in a cluster.

Oracle is keeping most details about the new products' specific capabilities under wraps. But Shimp says they will address grid computing's current weaknesses, including the need for software that's more self-managing. The technology will also let companies that use Oracle's Real Application Clusters technology create pools of clustered systems that can be easily reassigned processing jobs based on need.

While large companies will benefit most from grid computing, Oracle's use of grid computing in its outsourcing business will bring those capabilities to small companies as well, Shimp says.

Information about when the Oracle10G database, application-server, and enterprise-management software will be available also isn't being disclosed. Shimp estimates that two-thirds or more of Oracle's customer base has migrated to the Oracle9i generation of software, which began shipping in June 2001--about eight months after it was announced. Oracle will stop supporting the previous Oracle8i generation of its software at year's end.