HP IBM Intel and Sun Microsystems Launch Globus Consortium

Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Sun Microsystems today announced the formation of the Globus Consortium, a new industry group dedicated to the commercial advancement of the Globus Toolkit, an open standards building block for enterprise-level Grid implementations.
HP, IBM, Intel and Sun Microsystems are Sponsor Members of the Globus
Consortium. Nortel Networks and Univa are Contributor Members.

The new consortium's technology roadmap will be guided by charter members,
and Dr. Ian Foster and Steve Tuecke, consortium board members who led the
original team that developed the Globus Toolkit at Argonne National Labs.

"Virtual environment software, the foundation for grid computing, saw
worldwide revenues grow 25% between 2003 and 2004," said Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's
vice president of system software research. "Open standards, such as the
Globus Toolkit, are an important part of that growth. IDC expects standards to
continue to be an important part of virtualized environments going forward."

While the Globus Consortium is not a standards body, it does intend to
work in tandem with existing Grid standards bodies -- such as the Global Grid
Forum (GGF) -- to further drive implementation of standards that best support
enterprise Grid implementations.

"The GGF and Globus communities continue to build on our historically
close relationship," said Mark Linesch, chair of the GGF. "With the launch of
the Globus Consortium, we are excited to have additional support in driving
the implementation and standards that have been created within the GGF.
Working together, we can accelerate efforts toward standardization and the
pervasive adoption of grid solutions for research and industry."

The Globus Consortium, with funding and engineering support from its
member companies, will focus on providing resources and direction on the
technology roadmap for the Globus Toolkit. It will define specifications and
requirements for the Globus Toolkit, fund code contributions, and deliver
leadership on open standards for industry Grid standards organizations.

"HP views the Grid as an important strategic space and a key component of
the HP Adaptive Enterprise, which helps enterprises become agile and
simplifies their access to global enterprise computing solutions," said
Greg Astfalk, chief scientist, office of strategy and technology, HP. "In HP's
view, the Grid is a powerful way to virtualize, share, and manage resources;
our leadership and financial support in the new Globus Consortium will further
accelerate the development, adoption and quality of the open source Globus
Toolkit."

"Businesses are adopting Grid computing at a quickening pace, and we
believe the Globus Toolkit helps accelerate that adoption," said Ken King,
vice president, Grid computing, IBM. "IBM has been a long-time supporter of
the Globus Toolkit, which we believe is a valuable asset in helping drive open
standards for Grid and distributed computing. As such, we intend to work with
the Globus Consortium to increase the value that Globus brings to the business
enterprise."

"Grid computing is going mainstream as enterprises see ways to utilize
distributed, large-scale deployments of standards-based hardware and software
to solve complex computing problems and drive their business operations to the
next level," said Richard Wirt, Vice President, Intel Senior Fellow, General
Manager, Software and Solutions Group. "As a Sponsor Member of the Globus
Consortium, Intel will help foster the use of the Globus Toolkit as a key tool
to better harness grid computing."

"Expanding our relationship with the Globus Consortium accelerates the
development of key tools and the availability of service-based applications
that can help usher in this new era in enterprise computing," said
Mark McClain, vice president of software marketing at Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Together, Sun and the Globus Consortium can help broaden the reach of Grid
technology in both research and the enterprise."

The Globus Consortium will be headed by IT industry veteran Greg Nawrocki,
who will serve as president and be responsible for day-to-day operations and
the promotion of the consortium within the industry. Previously, Nawrocki
worked at Argonne National Laboratory where he coordinated Globus
Toolkit-based application projects and organized the GlobusWORLD conference.
Prior to that, Nawrocki served in management and engineering roles at
Spyglass, OpenTV, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at
Michigan State University, KMS Fusion and Dexter Research Center.

The Globus Consortium will be further highlighted in the upcoming
GlobusWORLD conference (http://www.globusworld.org) in Boston, February 7-11.

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