United Devices

Infobox_Defunct_Company
company_name = United Devices, Inc.
company_
company_type = Private
successor = Univa UD
defunct = September 17, 2007
fate = merged with Univa to form Univa UD
foundation = Austin, Texas (1999)cite web|url=http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/105/105503.html|title=United Devices, Inc. Company Profile|publisher=Yahoo! business|accessdate=2007-08-29]
key_people = [http://www.ud.com/company/management.php Management listing]
location = Austin, Texas
num_employees = 50 (as of 2007)
industry = Distributed computing, Grid computing, Computer software
products = Grid MP, Insight, Synergy, Reliance
revenue = $3.30 M (as of 2007)
homepage = [http://www.ud.com/ www.ud.com]

United Devices, Inc. was a privately held, commercial distributed computing company that focused on the use of grid computing to manage HPC infrastructures and enterprise cluster management. Its products and services allowed users to "allocate workloads to computers and devices throughout enterprises, aggregating computing power that would normally go unused." It now operates under the name Univa UD, after merging with Univa on September 17, 2007.

History

Founded in 1999 in Austin, Texas, United Devices began with distributed computing expertise from distributed.net [cite pressrelease|url=http://www.distributed.net/pressroom/news-20001127.txt|publisher=Distributed Computing Technologies, Inc.|date=November 27, 2000|title=Distributed.net and United Devices Join Forces] and SETI@home, although only a few of the original technical staff from those organizations are still on board today.

In April 2001, grid.org was formally launched as a philanthropic non-profit website to demonstrate the benefits of Internet-based large scale grid computing. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1255804.stm|title=Screensaver aids cancer fight|publisher=BBC News|date=2001-04-03|accessdate=2006-08-20]

Later in 2002 with help from UD, NTT Data launched a similar Internet-based Cell Computing project targeting Japanese users. [cite pressrelease|url=http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2002/042400.html|title=United Devices Joins Forces with NTT DATA on Cell Computing Technology, Applying Distributed Computing to Tasks Requiring Enormous CPU Power|publisher=NTT Data|date=April 24, 2002] [cite web|url=http://www.gridcomputingplanet.com/news/article.php/2238721|title=United Devices' Grid Experiment A Hit In Japan|date=2003-07-22|first=Paul|last=Shread|publisher=Grid Computing Planet|accessdate=2006-07-26] In 2004, IBM and United Devices worked together to start the World Community Grid project as another demonstration of Internet-based grid computing. [cite pressrelease|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/grid/grid_press/pr_1116.shtml|publisher=IBM|date=November 16, 2004|title=IBM Introduces 'World Community Grid': Public invited to donate idle computer time for global humanitarian effort|accessdate=2007-08-29]

In August 2005, United Devices acquired the Paris-based GridXpert company and added "Synergy" to its product lineup. [cite web|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2005/08/08/daily3.html|date=August 8, 2005|publisher=Austin Business Journal|accessdate=2007-08-29|title=United Devices to buy French company]

In 2006, the company acknowledged seeing an industry shift from only using grid computing for compute-intensive applications towards data center automation [cite web|url=http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=58145|title=United Devices Gooses Grids|date=2004-08-24|publisher=Byte and Switch|first=Evan|last=Koblentz|accessdate=2006-07-26] and business application optimization. [cite web|url=http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/738575.html|title=A Busy Week for United Devices|first=Derrick|last=Harris|date=2006-07-24|publisher=Grid Today|accessdate=2006-07-26|quote=Grid computing has already been proven for compute-intensive applications, so this roundtable will focus on more on business applications ... an area toward which Venkat said the company has been seeing a shift] [cite web|url=http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/1552463.html|title=The Evolution of United Devices (and Grid, In General)|publisher=Grid Today|work=From the Editor|first=Derrick|last=Harris|accessdate=2007-08-29]

Partly in response to the market shifts and reorganization, grid.org was shut down on April 27, 2007 after completing its mission to "demonstrate the viability and benefits of large-scale Internet-based grid computing". [cite web|url=http://www.gridswatch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1113&Itemid=14|publisher=Grids Watch|date=27 April 2007|title=Grid.org "A Pioneering Internet Grid Project" is closing shop|accessdate=2007-08-29] cite web|url=http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/1539939.html|title=Grid From the Bottom Up|work=From the Editor|publisher=Grid Today|date=April 30, 2007|accessdate=2007-08-29]

On September 17, 2007, the company announced that it would merge with the Lisle, Illinois-based Univa and operate under the new name Univa UD. The combined company would offer open source solutions based around Globus Toolkit, while continuing to sell its existing grid products and support its existing customers. [cite web|url=http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/1783417.html|title=Univa, United Devices Merge|publisher=Grid Today|date=September 17, 2007|accessdate=2007-11-08]

Commercial products

* Grid MP — a job scheduler and application provisioning platform. It is offered in various editions, depending on the scalability needs of the customer. The company publishes a list of high-profile organizations using "Grid MP" on [http://www.ud.com/company/resources/customers-industries.php the United Devices website] .

* MP Insight — allows customers to perform data analysis to determine if their grid computing resources are being effectively used. [cite web|url=http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/1580391.html|date=May 23, 2007|work=Breaking News|title=United Devices Insight 4.0 Fuels Datacenter Automation|publisher=Grid Today]

* MP Synergy — a metascheduler based on Globus Toolkit technology that allows users to perform efficient scheduling within an organization that has multiple job schedulers already deployed and controlling independent clusters. [cite web|url=http://www.gridwisetech.pl/resources/reports/report_2006_grid_brokers.pdf|format=pdf|title=Grid Brokers and Metaschedulers Market Overview|month=February | year=2006|publisher=GridwiseTech|quote=MP Synergy relies on Globus Toolkit (2.4) ... Anotherinstallation was a demonstration for customers, where about 70 heterogeneous nodes were managed within eight DRMs and distributed in two sites.] Supported schedulers include Grid MP, Sun Grid Engine, Platform LSF, PBS, LoadLeveler, and Condor.

* Reliance — designed specifically for the datacenter to provide automated infrastructure management and to ensure application service levels are honored by monitoring events and performing provisioning actions based on these events. [cite web|url=http://www.ud.com/products/reliance.php|publisher=United Devices|title=Reliance: Enforcing Application-Based SLAs via Policies|accessdate=2007-08-29]

Public philanthropy

From 2001 until 2007, United Devices operated a series of public projects on their grid.org website as part of a philanthropic effort. It also acted as a marketing tool, helping to spread awareness of the Grid MP product and demonstrating the platform's scalability. Some of the costs associated with operating the past projects on grid.org have been financially sponsored in part by companies including Microsoft, Intel, and IBM.

On April 27, 2007, United Devices closed down grid.org and the Cancer Research Project with the announcement that it "has completed its mission to demonstrate the viability and benefits of large-scale Internet-based grid computing."

See also

* Distributed computing
* Grid computing
* CPU scavenging
* Job schedulers

References

External links

* [http://www.ud.com/ Official corporate website]
* [http://www.grid.org/ Public distributed computing projects operated by United Devices]
* [http://www.wikicompany.org/wiki/United_Devices Corporate profile on WikiCompany]