New $4.3m centre aims to help firms enter the grid

S'pore partners private sector to develop high-speed computing initiatives, reports RAJU CHELLAM

Business Times
12 May 2005

THE Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has teamed up with Oracle Singapore, Sun Microsystems and Dell Singapore to set up the region's first 'Enterprise-g Centre' to get more companies to adopt grid computing across the Asia Pacific.

The $4.3 million investment in the centre will help companies test pilot projects in enterprise grid computing, Oracle said.

Oracle and IDA have also partnered for another initiative called gMap - for Enterprise-g Manpower Progamme - to boost the development of grid capabilities among companies in the region. The aim is to tap a global grid-computing market that's set to cross US$12 billion in revenues by 2007, according to research firm IDC Corp.

Grid computing is an emerging technology that enables large-scale sharing of widely distributed computing resources to solve specific problems. In Singapore, for example, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is setting up a supercomputing grid that will initially link 800 personal computers to act as a single massive unit. The aim is to link more than 3,000 PCs in two years, which could make the NUS Grid the world's largest by then.

'The gMap initiative is part of a goal that we set for the Enterprise-g@Singapore project that we launched in July 2004 - to create a pool of 300 people in the grid-computing field the next two to three years,' said Stanley Chew, managing director of Oracle Singapore.

'Of these, about 60 of them may rise to become enterprise grid-computing architects, and will be highly sought after for their skills and experience.'

Enterprise-g@Singapore was a joint initiative between IDA and Oracle with a projected investment of $25 million - including the $4.3 million in the centre - over three years. 'Some of the sectors in Singapore that are exploring grid computing include financial services, manufacturing, engineering design and biotechnology,' Mr Chew said.

Late last year, Oracle teamed up with Dell Inc, EMC Corp and Intel Corp to form Project MegaGrid, a complete grid-computing solution that will help companies harness huge amounts of computing resources at a fraction of the cost.

Last month, Oracle and British research firm Quocirca compiled the first global index of grid computing and ranked Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand near the top for their readiness and capacity to adopt the technology.

'Grid computing presents great opportunities and benefits for Singapore as it brings a paradigm shift from the ownership of computational assets to the buying of computing services,' said IDA chief executive Chan Yeng Kit. 'In Singapore, apart from research and education, grid computing has found its way into growth sectors such as construction and manufacturing, digital media, business process outsourcing and financial services sectors.'

Financial services firm Charles Schwab, for example, uses grid computing to integrate data, analyse customer profiles and provide specific product offerings to customers. Lucasfilm - maker of the Star Wars films - uses grid computing to make high-definition films. Some movie production houses are using the technology to digitally restore old films, or provide layers of special effects to new ventures.

URL: http://it.asia1.com.sg/newsdaily/news001_20050513.html