Grid Computing News : Sun Expands Grid Application Offerings

Sun Microsystems has added 14 new applications to its Network.com Application Catalog of online grid-enabled applications available from the Sun Grid compute utility service on a pay-per-use basis. Sun also launched a new partner program, Sun Network.com Connection, for independent software vendors (ISVs) to create on-demand service offerings at lower risk and cost, with access to new sales channels. The latest additions bring the grid service's total number of "Click and Run" applications to 39. Mark Herring, Sun's senior director of software marketing, said Network.com "is evolving into a virtual on-demand data center that allows businesses of any size to leverage compute infrastructure without the cost of ownership and with the flexibility of scaling up or down compute resources in real time as business demands change." The latest applications include Blender, open source tools for modeling, rendering, animation, post-production, creation and playback of interactive 3D content. Sun is sponsoring Blender Foundation's open movie "Peach," a short 3D animation by artists and developers in the Blender community, with grants of CPU hours in Network.com.... read more