Globus Toolkit is focus of consortium Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems will this week announce an effort they are spearheading to extend the open source Globus Toolkit for grid technologies to commercial enterprise deployments.In conjunction with the authors of the toolkit, including Ian Foster, Steve Tuecke, and Carl Kesselman, the vendors will unveil the Globus Consortium, focusing on promotion and education.“It’s a group of companies coming together to pool resources to help the [toolkit developer] Globus Alliance with its goals going forward,” said Foster, who will serve as a board member. Among issues expected to be addressed are adding integration with identity management and enterprise resource management systems to the toolkit, Foster said. The consortium will not be the first organization to promote grid technologies. Others include the Globus Alliance, which focuses primarily on developing the toolkit for use in research and academic projects; the Enterprise Grid Alliance, which was formed to develop enterprise grid solutions; and the Global Grid Forum, which developed the Open Grid Services Architecture.Version 4 of the Globus Toolkit, due in April, will include support for the OASIS Web Services Resource Framework specification for distributed systems management, enhanced data management, and improvements to the identification and authentication of users. Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business