Grid computing spreads workloads, eases data sharing
Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/1/2003 6:00:00 AM
Grid computing was devised to speed the process of solving complex mathematical problems by dividing the job of crunching numbers among multiple processors. Now, a Burlington, Mass.-based software developer says it's using a similar concept to create a low-cost method of helping companies distribute real-time data across their supply chains.
Avaki claims the recently released Version 4.0 of its product, Avaki Data Grid, helps companies distribute data across wide geographic areas without the need for buying, or maintaining, additional databases.
According to Craig Muzilla, an Avaki vice president, the system allows data administrators to publish various types of information to a central data grid. Users retrieve the data by typing standard SQL queries. If a user asks for data that is not in the grid, the Avaki system plucks that data from its original source and places a copy in the grid. Administrators can program the grid to return to the original data sources at regular intervals to maintain fresh data in the grid. "You also could make it go to the original source for each query," Muzilla says, "ensuring that all data is real time."
Previous versions of the data grid managed only unstructured data, files, and documents not stored in a database. Avaki sold those systems primarily to pharmaceutical manufacturers, which used them to share information related to product research and development. With the latest version released in August, which is capable of managing all forms of data, Avaki is now calling on discrete manufacturers as well.
Muzilla says an aerospace company already has shown that the data grid can make it easier to share information from a product data management system with a global network of subcontractors.
