Grid computing: Learn about it and you'll love it

Though still in its early days, grid computing looks to have a promising future - if vendors can continue to educate IT departments about its benefits.

Few European businesses have implemented grid computing to date. Approximately seven per cent of IT staff use grid in some areas, with about another three per cent planning pilots over the next three months, according to a new research report from analyst house Quocirca.

However, there's significant activity in the precursor stages to full adoption of grid computing, including the standardisation and consolidation of IT systems. In areas such as email and application servers, more than half of all staff surveyed had taken these preliminary steps.

Dale Vile, service director at Quocirca, says standardisation is an important first step and includes tasks such as getting all systems "onto the same platform and same [software] release".

About one in four IT staff surveyed by Quocirca had at least some familiarity with grid computing.

But if more people learn about the technology, adoption should rise, given that Quocirca found those who knew about the technology had a high likelihood to feel committed to implementing it.

"Education is the biggest issue in this space," says Vile. "What grid does is tackle core day-to-day problems and headaches that IT operations staff are dealing with. It will appeal to them once they know about it."

As for grid's fate in the long term, Vile said: "There's no doubt the whole industry will move toward grid - it won't happen overnight, but gradually."

Grid activity is highest in industries such as financial services, travel and transportation and retail - areas with large data centres and high volumes of end use transactions.

Quocirca polled 603 IT managers and executives across a range of industries and European countries.

The full report, titled Grid Computing in Europe: Laying the Foundations for an Inevitable Shift, is available from Quocirca's website.