Uncertainty in grid computing

The IDC has released a report that has identified a lack of confidence in the concept of grid/utility computing and predicts that its uptake in business is not likely to be as popular in the overall market perspective as some vendors expect.

In the "Business Selection Criteria for Server Computing Environments" report, the IDC has singled out three significant reasons for this, excluding reliability and quality.These are: total costs of ownership; customer service and system stability.

IDC has found that only about 6.8 percent of the people they questioned are planning to move towards a grid computing model. 15.2 percent also said that they were not sure if their organisation is preparing to take it up.

Margaret Banaghan, the IDC senior analyst for AP Servers and Workstations explained why vendors need to convince their customers that they can look after them during the switch to this upgrade.

She outlined that they need to make the message clearer that there is not any risk in losing performance. "With the entrenchment of Industry Standard Servers in the marketplace the barriers to switch from one server vendor to another has become increasingly less complex.

"Vendors must continue to invest heavily in their customer service levels to maintain their existing customer base, particularly those in the industry standard x86 server marketplace."

"The task of educating vendors on grid/utility computing and initiating cultural change within larger organisations in Australia still remains."

She added that a lot of energy still needs to be channelled towards clarifying the benefits of grid computing to users to clear some of the confusion over the concept.

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