Survey: Turf wars hurt grid computing
Office politics and other social issues are a bigger problem than technology when it comes to the adoption of the "grid" philosophy of pooling computing resources, a study says.
In grid computing,
Reader Resources CNET White papers | ||||
But it will be difficult for central authorities to wrestle away control over individual or departmental computers so the machines can be put into a larger collective, according to a survey conducted by Collignon Research and funded by Platform Computing, which sells software that can be used to build and run grids.
"Eighty-nine percent of respondents believe that there are nontechnical barriers to successful implementation of grid technology, such as 'server-hugging,' loss of control and problems related to sharing information technology budgets," said a study based on the survey data.
Computer users fear they'll lose control over, or access, to their computers; will have their budgets cut; will be faced with weaker data security barriers between different grid users; and will see their projects demoted to lower priorities, the study said.
The survey polled employees at 40 organizations that use grid computing, including chip designers such as Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm, financial services companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase and biotechnology companies such as Incyte Genomics and Novartis.