EGA, GGF Merger in Perspective

Roughly two years ago, Oracle kicked off the Enterprise Grid Alliance -- dedicated to the enterprise advancement of Grid computing. The EGA vowed: "With our pragmatic approach focusing on the enterprise, EGA is uniquely positioned to deliver near term, tangible benefits."

The EGA immediately took the PR posturing that only they truly understood the unique requirements of enterprise Grid ("This isn't some academic group that's trying to boil the ocean"). They made pointed efforts to polarize the Grid discussion -- researchers and scientists who just 'don't get' enterprise Grid on one side, and EGA paying members on the other.

The EGA's abrasive positioning drew some criticism from the core Grid computing community - as well as some comparisons to how commercial interests similarly tried to cast aside the research / academic pioneers as the Internet evolved into mainstream use.

But that was then and this is now...

We've heard rumblings for months now, however it seems like the goal of all joining hands and singing "Kumbaya" is ever closer to reality.

What's interesting about the EGA is that the lines it drew in the sand were truly artificial. The participating IT vendors (the roster is impressive) have all been actively participating with the GGF for years. Many have developed time / money / code to open source Grid efforts in e-Science (such as the Globus

Toolkit) -- and if you look at the largest deployed Grids today (such as Cern and TeraGrid), you'll see a wide representation of their equipment in use.

The GGF has always represented tangible results and progress -- a group of technologists truly working together on common goals for Grid. However, both organizations have often been criticized as to whether they have been ultimately focused on the top of the value chain, the end user. The two organizations were a bit like shopping carts with an errant wheel, a bit tough for the users to push down the aisle toward successful grid adoption and deployment.

The GGF has made great strides in the past year bringing commercial users, implementers and vendors into the fold. I attribute that to Mark Linesch's leadership and his ability to read the pulse of enterprise Grid.

With two good wheels for Mark to choose from, I'm expecting a cart that glides down the center of the aisle ...