June 21, 2006

By Jason Turcotte

This week Platform Computing released a new software grid tool, Symphony 3, which virtualizes compute-intensive app services across varied IT resources to create a shared, scaleable and fault-tolerant system. And new features to Symphony’s modular grid structure is said to speed up the app dev process.

The grid structure expedites the dev process by enabling developers to work off-grid without interfering with IT. Now IT can manage its apps without delaying dev resources and developers can work independently of IT; they can set up mini clusters, run metrics, run benchmarks and publish.

"Our customers see these additional capabilities as a significant advantage to them," said Martin Harris, product manager, Platform Computing.

According to Harris, one client that provides risk assessment portfolios to traders cut some of its app time down from 10 hours to seven minutes, thanks to Platform’s grid solution. He says the off-grid feature not only saves time but money.

IBM – which executed the software’s scalability testing – reports Symphony is more scalable across Windows and Linux than DataSynapse and other grid products, functioning across all operating systems. Platform also offers a free toolkit download that helps Symphony customers create apps and import those apps into the grid.

The software features the Platform Enterprise Grid Orchestrator, or EGO to create a single, virtual environment that can share any app on a grid. In a nutshell, says Harris, Symphony "repurposes" a customer’s existing apps into the grid system.

Platform Computing designed Symphony 3 in response to increasing demand from its financial clients – who represent roughly 80 percent of the software’s customer base – to deploy grid software. Clients include HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Fortis, BNP, Sal Oppenheim, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd., UFJ Bank, Mass Mutual Financial Group, Deutsche Bank and Ernst & Young. The software’s latest version is available June 30.

Jason Turcotte is an assistant editor at Application Development Trends.