SAS Looks Ahead to Grid Computing

The next stage in the evolution of high performance distributed computing is widely recognised to be 'grids' or "metacomputing". Grids enable many machines to work simultaneously on computationally intensive tasks, without the user having to nominate the resources to be used. Consequently user organisations can leverage unused computing resources, rapidly obtaining information that would otherwise take weeks or months to process. As Keith Collins, SAS' senior vice president and chief technology officer puts it, "Grid computing enables our customers to do more with less - ultimately lowering the total cost of ownership."

A recent application of grid computing was reported in the UK this September. Organisations including the Met Office, Oxford University and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory launched an experiment to create "the world's most comprehensive probability-based forecast of 21st century climate". Computer users around the world are being encouraged to download a climate model from the web; each computer then runs a unique version of the Met Office's climate model, simulating several decade's of global climate at a time.

Dave Annis, Head of Technology, SAS UK, says "Simulation and forecasting are excellent applications of grid computing. SAS High Performance Forecasting already uses parallel techniques to produce more accurate and granular forecasts, so it is an obvious step to grid-enable this to take it even further. By joining the Global Grid Forum (GGF), we will be able to evolve our grid offering more rapidly than other vendors in the business intelligence market, as the GGF will allow our experts to network with their peers who live and breathe grid technology."

The GGF is a truly global body, a merger of technical communities in North America, Asia Pacific and the European Grid Forum (eGrid). Its aim is to reduce the costs and accelerate the progress of grid computing, ensuring common practices and interoperability between large-scale metacomputing or grid systems. By joining this forum, SAS will help its customers to stay at the forefront of developments. That will translate into competitive advantage as they get the computing power and network bandwidth they need to perform business-critical tasks.

Industry analysts have already picked up on SAS' decision. William Fellows of The451 said, "SAS has made a corporate decision to embrace grid computing as a way to better enable and deliver its BI products going forward." ("SAS calls grids strategically important for its future products", 5 September 2003).

For further information about SAS and the Global Grid Forum, please visit www.ggf.org

For further information on SAS High Performance Forecasting, please visit: http://www.sas.com/technologies/analytics/forecasting/hpf/index.html