GRID TERMINOLOGY

Adaptive Enterprise
A marketing term used extensively by HP. An adaptive enterprise matches supply and demand of IT resources in real time, so the business can quickly manage and capitalize on change. An adaptive enterprise can synchronize its IT resources with the demands of its business environment; similar to IBM's On-Demand Business.

Automation
The replacement of manual operations by computerized methods. Automation can both improve efficiency and reduce errors brought on by manual intervention.

Autonomic Computing
Automatic responses to unpredictable events. The term, used extensively by IBM, refers to the capability of computer systems and networks to configure themselves to changing conditions and heal themselves in the event of failure. Autonomy implies that less human intervention is required for operation under such conditions.

Blades
A computing system that includes processors and memory on a single board, but where other resources such as power, cooling, network access, and storage services are shared. Blades are designed to be easily installed and removed and are typically smaller than rack-optimized servers.

Capacity on Demand
Processing power that is available as needed in a timely manner without disrupting other business priorities. Capacity on demand frequently involves additional capacity installed but not available for use until needed.

Clustering
Connecting two or more computers together in such a way that they appear to be a single computing resource. Clustering is used for parallel processing, load balancing, and fault tolerance; a popular strategy for implementing grid computing, since it is relatively easy to add new CPUs simply by adding a new server or blade to the overall cluster. Clusters are typically transparent to users and applications.

Cluster Interconnect
A very high-speed connection allowing server nodes in a cluster to communicate.

Consolidate
One of the three steps recommended by AvarSYS to help data centers move to a Grid Computing architecture. By consolidating resources such as servers, storage, network, and data, a company can reduce overall data center management costs while simplifying provisioning of the overall capacity for various business drivers.

Data Center
A facility that provides a suitable environment (power, cooling, network connectivity, management services) for housing information technology equipment (servers, storage) and providing IT services and support to customers.

Data Provisioning
Making data available when and where it's needed and as it becomes available.

Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA)
The Enterprise Grid Alliance is a consortium of leading vendors including AvarSYS and customers focused on developing Enterprise Grid solutions. The EGA, an open, independent, vendor-neutral organization, was formed in order to identify obstacles facing enterprises in adopting grid technologies, and to promote open, interoperable solutions to these problems.

Fibre Channel
A high-speed transport technology used to build Storage Area Networks (SAN). The Fibre Channel Protocol serializes SC SI commands into Fibre Channel frames. Although Fibre Channel can be used as a general-purpose network carrying ATM, IP, and other protocols, it has been primarily used for transporting SCSI traffic from servers to disk arrays. Fibre Channel supports single mode and multimode fiber connections as well as coaxial cable and twisted pair. www.fibrechannel.org

Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet
An Ethernet technology that raises transmission speed to either 1 or 10GBp s and is compatible with existing Ethernet networks. Gigabit Ethernet is being deployed in large numbers in both corporate and public data networks, and an even faster 10-Gigabit Ethernet standard is nearing completion.

Global Grid Forum
The standards body for defining standard specifications for global grids. www.gridforum.org

Globus Alliance
A group that conducts research and development for academic grids. The alliance, creators of the Globus Toolkit, is based at Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, the University of Chicago, the University of Edinburgh, and the Swedish Center for Parallel Computers. www.globus.org.

Globus Toolkit
A kit designed to provide a set of tools based on standard grid APIs developed by the Global Grid Forum. Its latest development version, GT3, is based on standards currently being drafted by the Global Grid Forum.

Grid
An enterprise's computational resources-servers, networks, storage, and information-acting together to create one or more large pools of computing resources. A grid can be dynamically provisioned on demand to various enterprise applications and users, allowing enterprises to dynamically align their IT resources to their business needs.

Grid Computing
The use of a grid to provide computing resources, analogous to an electric utility. On the client-side, grid computing provides shared resources, allowing complete transparency in where and how a task is performed. On the server side, grid computing allows enterprises to provision resources to respond to client requests.

InfiniBand
Both an I/O architecture and a specification for the transmission of data between processors and I/O devices, which has been gradually replacing the PCI bus in high-end servers and PCs. Instead of sending data in parallel, InfiniBand sends data in serial, can carry multiple channels of data, and can carry multiple channels of data at the same time in a multiplexing signal. www.infinibandta.org.

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
A protocol used to access information directories. LDAP is designed to provide a common method for searching e-mail addresses on the Internet. LDAP will make it possible for almost any application running on virtually any computer platform to obtain directory information, such as e-mail addresses and public keys.

N1
Sun's architecture for the next -generation data center. The architecture is designed to make the entire data center behave as a single, unified system. N1 is designed to reduce management complexity and cost; increase data center resource utilization, improve infrastructure responsiveness and agility, and ensure investment protection.

NAS (Network-Attached Storage)
A server dedicated to standard file sharing. NAS allows more hard-disk storage space to be added to a network that already utilizes servers without shutting it down for maintenance and upgrades. NAS does not provide e-mail, authentication, or file management.

Node
A network processing location. A node can be a computer, a set of clustered blades, or some other device, such as a printer. Every node has a unique network address, sometimes called a Data Link Control address or a Media Access Control address.

On Demand Business
IBM marketing term that denotes a company whose business processes-integrated end-to-end across the company and with key partners, suppliers and customers-can respond with flexibility and speed to any customer demand, opportunity, or external threat. On-demand businesses are responsive, variable, focused and resilient.

Pooling
Combining separate resources into a single logical group. Provisioning, providing or allocating the requested resource.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
A method of accessing multiple individual disks as if the array were one larger disk, spreading data access out over these multiple disks. RAID improves access time and reduces the risk of losing all data if one drive fails.

Resource
Any component in a computer or network used to perform a specific computing task (storage, servers, data, database server, application server, etc.).

SAN (Storage Area Network)
A high-speed sub-network of shared storage devices. In large enterprises, a SAN connects multiple servers to a centralized pool of disk storage. Compared to managing hundreds of servers, each with their own disks, SANs reduce system administration overhead. By treating all the company's storage as a single resource, disk maintenance and routine backups are easier to schedule and control. In some SANs, the disks themselves can copy data to other disks for backup without any processing overhead at the host computers.

Server
A computer resource in a network that is shared by multiple users. The term can refer either to a specific piece of hardware or a software process, such as "database server" or "Web server." Software-based servers with large user populations typically run on their own dedicated hardware. Server provisioning the allocation of servers for use for application software and users.

SLA (Service Level Agreement)
The agreement between representatives of a customer's internet data center and the service provider to determine the type, capacity, and quality of service. SLAs are used by vendors and customers as well as internally by IT shops and their end users. They can specify bandwidth availability, response times for routine and ad hoc queries, response time for problem resolution (network down, machine failure, etc.), and steps to be taken in the event of problems with penalties for non-compliance.

SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing)
A computer architecture that utilizes multiple CPUs to complete individual processes simultaneously. Any idle processor can be assigned any task, and additional CPUs can be added to improve performance and handle increased loads.

Software Provisioning
Installing, configuring, and making software available for applications and users.

Storage Provisioning
The allocation of storage for use for applications (including databases) and users.

Utility Computing
A pay-as-you-go model of computing. Instead of paying for computer resources to handle the peak load at all times, you pay only for the computing you use; metaphorical reference to electric utilities.

Utility Data Center
An infrastructure solution proposed by HP that allows virtualization of computing resources for the data center. The Utility Data Center includes servers, storage, and networking products that are integrated and deployed by intelligent management software that allows them to be shared and dynamically re-provisioned to accommodate changing workloads.

Virtualization
Allows interacting with a resource using an abstract mechanism so that the underlying physical resource can be replaced with another one of similar capability without affecting the resource consumer. Virtualization balances supply and demand by providing a transparent, aggregated computing resource.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A private network that is configured within a public network in order to take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks. VPNs are widely used by enterprises to create Wide Area Networks that span large geographic areas, to provide site-to-site connections to branch offices and to allow mobile users to dial up their company LANs.

Web Service
Web-based applications that dynamically interact with other Web applications using open standards that include XML, WSDL, UDDI, and SOAP.

Workload Balancing
Distributing the workload across multiple systems to optimize system usage and response time for the user.