Fujitsu Partners With the Mind Electric to Develop Open Grid Services Architecture

Business Wire, Nov 18, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2002

Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Selects GLUE as Web Services

Platform to Integrate With Grid Architectures

The Mind Electric (TME), a leading provider of software for service-oriented architectures, announced today its collaboration with Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe to develop innovative applications of grid technologies based on service-oriented architectures and web services.

Founded in 1968 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories is one of the premier research centers in the world. With laboratories around the globe, the organization conducts a wide range of basic and applied research in diverse areas including networks, advanced materials and electronic devices. Fujitsu Laboratories' European branch is developing an implementation of the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) based on Arcon, its implementation of the Unicore grid environment (www.unicore.org). OGSA is a set of enhancements to web services to provide the necessary functions to operate a grid. The combination of web services and grid technologies represents the next major step in realizing practical dynamic distributed systems.

Built to support service-oriented architectures, GLUE was selected by Fujitsu Laboratories as the web services platform for developing an OGSA-compliant version of Arcon. "Performing cutting-edge research, Fujitsu Labs Europe is constantly dealing with innovative, emerging technologies. We were very impressed with GLUE's strong feature set, high performance and ability to integrate quickly into our computing environment and grid services projects," said Dr. David Snelling of Fujitsu Laboratories Europe and co-chair of the Open Grid Services Infrastructure Working Group of the Global Grid Forum. GLUE is widely regarded as the leading independent web services platform and Fujitsu Laboratories' architects have found GLUE's ease-of-use and small footprint ideally suited to provide a web services foundation for grid architectures.

Fujitsu Laboratories Europe and TME are collaborating to develop OGSA extensions to GLUE to support a cross-platform grid infrastructure that is secure and reliable. "Software platforms designed to support service oriented architectures are a critical missing link for grid services to move from architectural blueprint to enterprise deployment. As a leader in delivering innovative technologies to the market, Fujitsu is at the forefront of developing advanced grid architectures to fulfill this requirement," said Graham Glass, Chairman and founder of The Mind Electric. "We support Fujitsu's initiatives with our web services platform GLUE and upcoming grid platform GAIA, which integrate across disparate applications and operating environments to provide a services-based framework for IT infrastructure."

About The Mind Electric

The Mind Electric provides distributed computing software infrastructure that enables enterprises to create, deploy and manage service-oriented applications rapidly. Shipping since August 2001, GLUE has been downloaded over 20,000 times and is widely regarded as the leading independent web services platform. With a comprehensive feature set, minimal learning curve and strong interoperability, GLUE is installed at numerous Global 500 companies including Bank of America, Global Exchange Services, Hitachi, Qwest and Vodafone. Based on a P2P architecture for reliability and scalability, GAIA is a grid services platform that is currently in development. The Mind Electric is a privately held company with headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and offices in San Francisco, New York and Washington DC. For additional information, please visit www.themindelectric.com.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702), the parent company of Fujitsu Laboratories and Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe, is a leading provider of Internet-based information technology solutions for the global marketplace. Fujitsu's pace-setting technologies, world-class computing and telecommunications platforms, and global corps of over 60,000 systems and services experts make it uniquely positioned to unleash the infinite possibilities of the Internet to help its customers succeed. Altogether, the Fujitsu Group has 188,000 employees and operations in over 100 countries. Visit www.fujitsu.com for more information.

Note to Editors: The Mind Electric, GLUE and GAIA are trademarks of The Mind Electric, Inc. All other brands or product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.