Oracle Grid Index Demonstrates Global Progress Towards Grid Computing
Asia Pacific Set to Leapfrog Rest of the World in Grid Adoption;
China Leads the World in Standardization and Consolidation
Hong Kong, April 20, 2005 - Oracle today unveiled the results of its first worldwide Grid Index research. Building upon a successful European pilot, the latest research provides a thought-provoking global snapshot on organizations' attitudes to, and adoption of, Grid Computing. The Grid Index produces a strong indicator that Asia Pacific is poised to leapfrog Europe and North America in the adoption of grid computing. It also indicates China as the global leader in both standardization and consolidation.
The survey shows Asia Pacific scoring high in the Benefit, Standardization and Consolidation Indices, cornerstones for the move to Grid. The Asia Pacific Benefit Index is 5.2 (on a scale of 0 to 10), above Europe's 4.6 and North America's 4.9, reflecting a higher level of understanding about the benefits of Grid in Asia Pacific. Consolidation and standardization are the essential foundations for Grid Computing. With indices of 5.9 and 7.0, Asia Pacific is ahead of both Europe (5.3 and 5.9) and North America (5.0 and 5.6). These numbers show that Asia Pacific is well-placed to leapfrog its Western counterparts to make rapid advances in Grid adoption.
However, the overall Grid Index score for each region surveyed are similar: North America (4.50), Europe (4.39) and Asia Pacific (4.37). These findings show that no one region enjoys an outstanding lead on the path to Grid Computing. The overall global average is 4.41, which gives an overall impression of a journey that is under way but not yet nearing completion.
China Leads the World in Standardization but Lags in Adoption
- With an overall Grid Index score of 4.74, China is ranked as fourth only to S.E. Asia, Nordics and Australasia.
- Of the Grid Index's key indicators, China tops the world in standardization (8.7) and consolidation (8.0). As a result of early standardization of IT infrastructure, Chinese organizations work in a more streamlined technology environment, with less requirement for the integration of legacy systems. This provides favorable conditions for the development of Grid Computing.
- In stark contrast, China's ROI (0.8) and Commitment (1.1) Indices are significantly lower than the global average (1.9 and 2.5). This can characterize China as being significantly behind the curve in terms of adoption of grid related technologies.
- China appears to have the most aggressive attitude to ROI with 21% of respondents demanding results in six months or less.
- Generally, 'limited awareness within the organization' is seen as the key barrier to Grid adoption, while a desire for 'proof of concept' is the key area suppliers should focus on to help drive adoption forward.
- These findings indicate a great affinity for Grid-ready infrastructure throughout China as long as suppliers can educate the wider organization, provide proof of concept examples and demonstrate rapid ROI.
Shanda – A Strong Proof Point
One such organization that understands Grid Computing is Shanda, one of China's biggest online gaming companies, which embarked on this journey recently.
"As one of the largest online gaming and development companies in Asia Pacific, Shanda Interactive Entertainment has more than two million peak concurrent users and we manage one of the largest online game communities in the world," said Gary Chang, director of Research and Development at the company. "We turned to Grid Computing because we foresaw some big challenges ahead of us in maintaining a rapid growing community. It is imperative for us to be able to sustain online services such as player authentication, billing and account management with zero downtime, and scale nicely as we expand our business."
"Today, Shanda provides an innovative backend platform for online game operations. Oracle Enterprise Grid Control automates many of the low-level systems management tasks that previously consumed an administrator's time. By standardizing the authentication process on Oracle Identity Management, we were able to consolidate the authentication servers of multiple games. The Grid design is very resilient offering the potential to support millions of simultaneous players from each facility in a 24/7 environment with automatic fail over capability," Chang said.
Oracle's Commitment to Grid
"These findings are important to us because information technology companies like Oracle have the responsibility of showing the market what Grid computing has to offer. We are committed to lowering adoption barriers and showing tangible examples of how and why companies can take advantage of Grid computing," said Tony Banham, senior director, Global Customer Programs, Oracle Asia Pacific.
"Oracle sees three steps that companies should take on their journey to Grid Computing – Standardization, Consolidation, Automation. The fact that Asia Pacific organizations are taking such a lead on standardized and consolidated technologies shows that businesses are already taking the right steps to move toward using grid computing. The time is ripe for this technology to enter the mainstream," Banham added. "Recent successful implementations of Oracle's Grid technology by major customers demonstrate that this is already a real option for mainstream adoption."
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Notes to Editors
- Quocirca surveyed 1356 organisations in 19 countries in North America (300 organizations), Europe (606) and Asia Pacific (450). In North America, these were split between those with a turnover of 100 Million Dollars or 1,000 employees (58 per cent) and those with a turnover of a Billion Dollars or 10,000 employees (42%)
- In Europe, these were split between those with a turnover of 100 Million Euro or 1,000 employees (52 per cent) and those with a turnover of a Billion Euro or 10,000 employees (48%)
- In Asia Pacific, these were split between those with a turnover of between 75 and 500 Million US Dollars or 500 employees (59 per cent) and those with a turnover of more than 500 Million Dollars or 5,000 employees (41%)
- The industries covered by the organizations include Retail, CPG, Healthcare, Financial Services, High Tech, Telecommunications, Life Sciences, Industrial, Scientific/Research, Construction & Engineering, Utilities and Travel & Transportation
- The indicators included return-on-investment, level of commitment to Grid, understanding the benefits of Grid, level of knowledge of Grid, level of IT consolidation and level of IT standardization
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