Utility Grid Comes Alive on the Internet - The Network is the Computer

Sun Microsystems Inc. announced Internet access of its Sun Grid Compute Utility in the United States. Through a portal, users -- including developers, scientists, and researchers -- will have access to Sun Grid, a compute utility available at $1/CPU-hr in the U.S. Users will be able to run complex computational tasks, technical applications, and develop applications on the grid. Users in the U.S. can access a pilot release of Sun Grid at www.network.com.

"Sun is the first and only vendor to make a credible utility grid offering available via the Internet," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO, Sun Microsystems. "By delivering computing as a service, Sun Grid helps developers, academics and computing professionals optimize time to results without investment in IT infrastructure. On-demand computing is now truly on demand - with a credit card and a Web connection, not a complex outsourcing relationship."

See Sun's press release for more information and examples of the grid's use.