Brain Murmurs

Don’t believe the hype

Grid computing hasn’t taken off in the way that industry experts have predicted, and we have been analyzing the reasons why for some time now.

Despite the substantial hype and promise surrounding grid computing, discussions are still scarce on the remaining barriers to mainstream adoption. We knew that buried beneath all the buzz, the core concept of volunteer computing really resonates with people and makes good business sense. So now that the smoke is beginning to clear, what is preventing people from adopting the new technology?

Current grid computing systems present too many risks to customers: existing systems are complicated and expensive, and most volunteer systems are too insecure for people to turn loose on their regular desktop computing infrastructure.

We understand and sympathize with the notion that most existing grid systems present considerable security risks. These systems lack checks on code deployed to the grid, making entire networks susceptible to substantial damage from simple programmer errors. Companies are justifiably paranoid about potential damage from poorly implemented grid schemes.

For mainstream businesses to embrace grid computing it needs to be dead simple to use, easily administered by the few people in the company that directly use it, and powerful.

Think Mac versus Linux; both are extremely powerful but the Mac, which is intuitive, easy to use, and has outstanding applications, is embraced by computer scientists and artists, while Linux tends to be more of a complicated, do-it-yourself platform generally championed by people of a more technical bent.

During the design phase of JIVA, we tried to ignore the hype and take a serious look at what would be required to make a grid computing product that would get widespread industry acceptance. We knew there were certain features that just were not being implemented in other commercial solutions. So we sat down and evaluated critical factors like security, cost, mutability, developer and customer acceptance, legacy support, and simplicity – and tried to determine which of these criteria were the most important and what could be sacrificed in the long run. From these design considerations, we developed a powerful product that addresses the most important issues to widespread customer adoption without compromising their major concerns.

Because of this effort we have been able to turn JIVA into a secure product suitable for both enterprises and small businesses. It is simple enough that administrators can install it and forget it. The JIVA server itself can be controlled by the analysts that use it for their work.

JIVA, Corroborated

This is a corroborating article discussing a 2005 Special Report on Gartners’ model for viewing technologies in respect to their level of hype. Because of what we learned during our design considerations, it wasn’t really much of surprise to see Grid computing inching down the curve to the very scary-sounding “trough of disillusionment.”

Though it may appear to be a downside, the truth is that the “trough of disillusionment” indicates that the technology is moving into a phase where the hype is beginning to fade and it must now stand on its own and be reevaluated with all of its blemishes. In fact, according to an article on the Guardian, this phase of the hype cycle provides a level of clarity in which organizations begin to have a “a true[er] understanding of the technology’s applicability, risks and benefits…. In more traditional language, this is when products are growing to maturity.”

We feel that the research by the Gartner Group validates the architectural sophistication that went into the creation of JIVA. It’s a no-brainer that volunteer computing, when deployed on your already maintained infrastructure, is a business decision that will save users money. That’s why there have already been a dump truck full of other solutions that focus on this one feature and do it very well. Unfortunately, we haven’t found a competing product that includes all of the features necessary for volunteer computing to become more commercially acceptable. In order for this technology to become widely adopted, factors like cost, simplicity, and security need to be taken a lot more seriously- and we feel like this is where JIVA really shows that it is coming-of-age.

~Garrett

Filed under: JIVA by Administrator