Sun Microsystems launched a new "Sun Grid" utility initiative aimed at radically changing the way customers select, acquire and use next-generation IT infrastructure. Sun's new utility offerings include the Sun Grid compute utility and the Sun Grid storage utility. In the coming months, Sun will also roll out additional Sun Grid offerings for the desktop and developer communities. Sun is in the process of rolling out Sun Grid Centers worldwide; initial locations include Virginia, Texas, New Jersey, Canada and Scotland. Sun expects these centers to be fully operational later this year.
Sun Grid is expected to appeal to some corporate customers in industries such as financial services and oil and gas.
- The Sun Grid compute utility -- provides customers with fully virtualized CPU memory and high-performance storage connected through a secure networked grid, at a price of $1/cpu-hr. Customers can use it for jobs such as Monte Carlo simulations, protein modeling, reservoir simulations, mechanical CAD simulations and similar non-transactional workloads. The Sun Grid compute utility will deliver a standard computing grid, powered by AMD Opteron processor-based systems, Solaris 10 OS and N1 Grid Engine, to help provide customers optimal performance, functionality and security.
- The Sun Grid storage utility -- supports customers' grid jobs at a price of $1/GB-mo or can be used independent of the compute utility.
