New Univa CEO Girds for Grids

Grid startup Univa today unveiled a new CEO -- former Oracle and i2 Technologies exec Mike Ellis -- as the vendor prepares to debut specialized software aimed at easing users' grid headaches.

Ellis was most recently senior vice president of supply chain management specialist i2 Technologies. He is also former director of business development for Oracle services. He takes the Univa helm from co-founder Steve Tuecke, who now becomes the firm's CTO. (See Univa Closes Series and Grid Startup Grabs Funding.)

The incoming CEO tells Byte and Switch that he was recruited to help Univa tout its soon-to-be-GA products around big-name enterprise firms.

Univa plans to make its Globus Enterprise offering generally available in the next few weeks. The product will include tools for installing, managing, and configuring the open-source Globus middleware, backed up by services and support. (See Grid Startup Hits the Source.)

To review: Grids, in theory, let users share applications and data across their IT infrastructures. But a lack of standards and skills, along with cost issues, are cited as major hurdles by users. (See Grid Computing: Baby Steps, and Software Licensing Gridlock.)