IBM Aligns With Univa for Globus Toolkit Development

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today said it has formed a joint agreement with Univa Corporation, a commercial software and professional services provider for open-source Globus software.

Under the terms of the agreement, Univa will deliver a commercially supported and enterprise-ready release of open-standard software built around the Globus Toolkit for use across IBM's eServer platforms running both AIX and Linux. As part of the agreement, IBM plans to use the commercial releases of Globus software from Univa internally at IBM.

In turn, Big Blue will provide Univa with product development resources and technology assets to assist in the development, delivery and support of the Univa commercial releases on IBM platforms.

Ken King, vice president of Grid Computing for IBM, pointed out that Big Blue is a founding member of the Globus Consortium and has worked closely with the Globus development community and ecosystem since its inception. IBM reported investments totaling millions of dollars in accelerating the adoption of Globus software in the commercial sector.

"We will work closely with Univa on delivery of enterprise-ready implementations of Globus for IBM platforms in much the same way that IBM works with Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) and Novell to ensure Linux distributions on IBM platforms are at the forefront of the industry," King said.

Committed to Open-Source

IBM said today's agreement further bolsters its commitment to open source and open standards, as well as the Globus ecosystem of Grid infrastructure software.

The company said it has been instrumental in funding the development of many technologies that comprise the Globus Toolkit and continues to be active in contributing code and promoting Web service standards that Globus relies upon through its leadership efforts in GGF, OASIS, W3C and other standards communities.

As King noted, IBM is a founding member of the Globus Consortium, which drives best-practices patterns, funding and key requirements prioritization for the Globus open source community.

IBM said the community-based approach to standards evolution and software delivery demonstrated by Globus is essential to continuing further adoption of grid computing in commercial organizations.

Going the Way of Linux?

Illuminata analyst Jonathan Eunice told LinuxInsider that IBM and other original equipment manufacturers have historically had their own internal groups developing Globus-derived toolkits. But Big Blue may be discovering that Univa can do cross-platform development that an organization such as the IBM Systems Technology Group cannot.

"Univa makes a lot of sense because if you are doing a grid deployment, you really don't want to have to think hard about what platforms it's going to run on," Eunice said. "You are doing this intentionally to homogenize the platform and step up one layer. Having an HP (NYSE: HPQ) grid toolkit or the IBM toolkit, which they call the grid toolbox, is just inserting the level of vendor specificity that grid is trying to get away from."

Eunice said the grid toolkit is somewhat like the Linux market. You don't see a Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) Linux and an HP Linux and an IBM Linux. You see Red Hat and Novell, which provide commonality that is more valuable to consumers than being tightly aligned with a specific platform.

Will IBM Give Up its Grid Toolkit?

The burning question is whether or not IBM will get out of the business of making its own grid implementation. Eunice said over time, it makes sense to do just that. Whether or not IBM agrees with his theory remains to be seen.

"Sometimes when you have a very large organization with so many resources and you have customers in each product area, it's easy to be concerned that customers might be disappointed if you don't continue," Eunice said.

"That can trap you into continuing an in-house effort when you should really just give up and let a third-party handle it. Over time, from a customer's point of view, it makes more sense to go to a third party."