(July 23, 2003) - IBM has announced a new version of WebSphere that helps businesses improve network performance and get more value out of their existing server resources. It includes a "traffic cop-like" software product that intelligently monitors application workload and routes traffic from one server to another according to its workload. The software is easily installed by an IT administrator as part of the WebSphere software setup. A system that dynamically balances workloads is essential to the on-demand operating environment.

Computer networks can be extremely inefficient when demand spikes. One server might sit idle while another is suddenly straining under a huge unplanned workload. The computing power exists, but not in the right place at the right time. With new Grid computing capability, WebSphere software addresses that bottleneck, automatically and intelligently monitoring application workload and routing traffic to one server or another according to its workload at a given time.

The new software allows a cluster consisting of servers numbering from dozens to hundreds to operate as a single environment that automatically adapts to sudden changes, much as the electrical Grid works.

In Grid computing, all of the disparate computers and systems across an organization become one large, cohesive computing system. That single system can be turned loose on problems and processes too large and intensive for any single computer to easily handle in an efficient manner. Without Grid computing, mainframes might lie idle 40 percent of the time, Unix servers are sometimes "serving" less than 10 percent of the time, and many business PCs might be underused as much as 95 percent of a typical day.