Global Grid Exchange gets boost

By Katie Wilson
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT August 10, 2006 02:45 am

— The West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation’s Global Grid Exchange is getting a boost of power from Fairmont State University.
In a written statement, the university recently announced FSU is the leading the world in power contributions to the Global Grid Exchange.
The Global Grid Exchange is an online marketplace that delivers the spare processing power of countless Internet-connected computers to users involved in business, science and medical research.
With access to hardware resources ranging from PCs to mainframes, the Global Grid Exchange can deliver computing power on demand to any desktop computer over the Internet, creating a cost-effective computation infrastructure able to drive innovation in the commercial, government and academic sectors around the world.
FSU’s Chief Information Officer Mike Bestul said in basic terms, the grid sucks power from idle computers and delivers it to computers in use, all through the Internet. Extra power is taken from the university’s lab computers only when they are idle, usually overnight.
Bestul said the extra power delivered by the grid is generally used for “high computational” applications, like cancer research.
Bestul said the institution became involved in the Global Grid Exchange just over a year ago. In that time, the university estimates it has donated about $9 million in power to the grid.
He noted officials looked at the number of the university’s computer cycles the grid was using, then determined what those cycles would cost if they were purchased at a commercial rate from a supercomputer. Bestul noted the nearest supercomputer is located in Pittsburgh.
“It feels pretty good to be first in the world,” Bestul said. “What made us feel particularly good was seeing our numbers climb so rapidly and the ease we were able to deploy. When we saw what our contribution was worth, it’s amazing.”
The grid’s software is remarkably small, easy to install and contains security protocols to protect all users’ information. The university’s new layered network environment provides additional protection. Bestul was careful to note that the university’s computer system holding finances and student files is not connected to the grid.
This fall, the university hopes to utilize the grid in new and exciting ways. Bestul noted professors will be able to use the grid for research and applications. Also, the university’s computer science department is working on developing computer programming classes using the grid, Bestul said.
Bestul noted a curriculum in grid computing will help provide computer science graduates with skills that are very valuable in today’s marketplace.
“Grid computing skills are highly sought after,” he said. “Not many schools are offering them, especially in this area.”
E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.