Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) [Paperback]

Pawel Plaszczak (Author), Richard Wellner Jr. Jr. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0127425039 | ISBN-13: 978-0127425030 | Publication Date: August 9, 2005 | Edition: 1

A decade ago, the corporate world viewed grid computing as a curiosity. Today, it views it as an opportunity--a chance to reduce costs, improve performance, fund new projects, and take advantage of under-utilized capacity. The engineering behind this transformation has been amply documented. Until now, however, little has been written to prepare managers, executives, and other decision-makers to implement grid computing in a sensible and effective way.

Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide examines the technology from a rigorous business perspective, equipping you with the practical knowledge you need to assess your options and determine what grid computing approach is right for your enterprise. This book is heavy on real-world experience, distilling from a rich assortment of case studies the best practices currently at work in a variety of industries. Always attentive to grid computing's many competitive advantages, it is also realistic about the challenges of selling the idea to staff and making it a part of your company's culture.

Grid Computing has an Online Companion at www.savvygrid.com with contents, details, community forum, and latest updates for the material.

* Sketches the history of grid computing, showing how it made the leap from academia to business.
* Examines the criteria you'll need to meet to make your network "grid-enabled."
* Explains how a grid-based solution can be made to meet key organizational requirements, including security, scheduling, data storage, and fault-tolerance.
* Surveys the approaches currently available and helps you choose the one that will best meet your needs, both now and in the future.
* Focuses heavily on the competitive advantages you can reap from grid computing, and provides advice on convincing your organization to adopt grid computing and making a successful transition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book explains grid in simple terms, using practical examples to demonstrate the technical and business benefits of grid and providing hands-on guidance for readers. This is a must read for everyone who is seriously investigating grid or planning to integrate grid technology in their IT environment."
--Wolfgang Gentzsch, Managing Director of Grid Computing and Networking Services, MCNC, Inc.

"What sets the book apart .is the practical context, backed up with actual case studies.From "building the business case" to understanding the motivations/requirements for "Grid-enabling" a product or application, this is a comprehensive look at some of the key business issues related to enterprise Grid." -- Greg Nawrocki, President, Globus Consortium, Grid Today

"The authors produced a very useful book for those who want to get a quick introduction in Grid computing." -- Primeur Weekly

"A great collection of all the variety of aspects, opinions and facets of Grid and Grid computing. I have been involved in Grid for several years, and yes, all the different aspects discussed in the book have come up sometime, somewhere." -- Sven Graupner, Technical Specialist, Hewlett Packard Laboratories

"The authors of this book are particularly well qualified to make the case for Grid computing to the business IT manager. Both have been intimately involved in developing and deploying Grid technology and applications for many years." --
Ian Foster, Head of Distributed Systems Lab, Argonne National Laboratory and Carl Kesselman, Director of Center for Grid Technologies, University of Southern California

"Offers a practical examination of where the entire field of distributed computing is headed." David Stodder, Intelligent Enterprise

Book Description

The first accessible guide to grid computing; describing current and future implementations of this emerging trend.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (August 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0127425039
• ISBN-13: 978-0127425030
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,017,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter "The Grid", September 30, 2005

By 

Robert Cormack - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) (Paperback)

Grid Computing is coming and it's hard to separate the hype from the reality. Not to mention the fact that various companies have co-opted "Grid" to refer to things that are less than Grids.

Make no mistake; this is a technology that's coming, and you, the IT Manager, Engineering Director or CEO of a technical company need to know what it's about.

Enter Richard Wellner and Pavel Plaszczak with "Grid Computing, The Savvy Manager's Guide". This is a very good book to provide the context you need to understand what Grid Computing is, where it came from and what it means to you.

The underlying technologies, such as Web Services, are covered in a lucid and accessible way. Numerous case studies are presented to show how organizations have capitalized on The Grid.

One particularly compelling success story presented is NEESgrid which uses Grid Computing for earthquake research. Massive computing resources are applied to analysis and simulation using pools of computers from around the world and the huge data sets created are made available on The Grid to a widely distributed community of scientists.

Plaszczak and Wellner are well qualified to write this book. Both worked under Dr. Ian Foster at Argonne National Laboratory as developers of the Globus Toolkit and both are now involved in commercial applications of Grid Computing. There is no better mentor than Dr. Foster, who coined the term "The Grid" and is co-author of the seminal theoretical work on the subject with Dr. Karl Kesselman of USC.

If your are looking to come to grips with a powerful new technology that is destined to affect the world of computing profoundly you should get a copy "Grid Computing, The Savvy Manager's Guide".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grid technology is relevant in the enterprise, January 28, 2006

By 

V. Vasiliadis "So many books, so little time" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) (Paperback)

The hundreds of grids deployed over the years in research and academic domains provide ample proof of the benefits that may be realized through the use of grid technologies. But these successes are sometimes overshadowed by recent market hype over grid computing that may lead one to question it's maturity, readiness, and applicability to enterprise IT needs. This book clearly illustrates the applicability of grid technology to the commercial world.

In the first half of the book, the authors do a great job of walking the reader through the various technologies used in grid computing solutions and proceed to highlight how grids fit into the commercial market. The remainder of the book serves as a concise reference for IT professionals considering grid in their environment. It describes all aspects that should be considered in making the decision to deploy grid technology, and provides helpful advice on "selling" grid to others within the organization. Particularly noteworthy is the discussion of risks in a grid computing project, and ways in which they may be mitigated.

Overall, a well-written and very relevant book that belongs on every IT professional's bookshelf.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grid becoming an established technology also for industry, January 5, 2006

By 

Fab (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grid Computing: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) (Paperback)

I have appreciated this book, since in my daily work I often need to give introductory talks on Grid technology for industrial and commercial applications. This book does a good job at introducing the technology and reviewing the present major trends. It covers in particular the recent convergency towards web services and gives some good examples of practical applications of Grid technology in the industrial domain. It will be very imporant to keep the information up to date in a very rapiddly changing environment. For this the companion electronic book on the web is very useful and appropriate. A possible suggestion for a future edition will be to cover more the European experience on Grid technology which in this first book is a bit neglected in favour of a rather comprehensive coverage of the US experience. Understandable looking at the backgroud of the two authors.