New IBM Software Brings Autonomic Computing to Grids

New IBM Software Brings Autonomic Computing to Grids

IBM today announced new self-managing autonomic software that changes the way organizations manage Grid computing environments by putting a new twist on a decades-old programming technique. The announcement was made at Grid World 2006. The software, called IBM Batch-on-Grid, allows organizations to continue operating during system failures, natural disasters or while complex applications are being updated across a Grid environment. It automatically accommodates spikes and lulls in computing workload — the amount of work a system is handling at any given time — by allocating servers on the fly, helping ensure IT systems run around the clock.

IBM Batch-on-Grid blends self-managing autonomic computing with technology borrowed from a mainstay programming technique called “batch computing,” which originated in the 1950s and is still used by thousands of finance, government and industrial customers. In batch computing, various computing jobs are submitted to queues and then scheduled for processing. Batch-on-Grid creates batch workloads within Grid computing environments, and then uses autonomic technology to automatically schedule and balance those workloads, which delivers capacity when needed and lowers costs.

Organizations can automatically shift Grid workloads so that the most important jobs — those affecting customers and supply chain partners — are taken care of first. For example, an organization can limit a server to 95 percent capacity, and when a server approaches that threshold, the software will instantly shift the workload on demand to another server. This ensures customers and partners are provided with continuous service.

Read the complete Press Release