In a move to broaden the use of grid-computing software to databases, Avaki Corp. Tuesday introduced Avaki Data Grid 4.0. The latest version of Data Grid is designed to help companies provision, access, and integrate distributed data from a variety of sources. Because Avaki Data Grid is built on grid technology, it can scale across a company's IT infrastructure while allowing administrators to maintain local control of their data.

While grid software typically searches for open CPUs within a grid architecture, Data Grid works a bit differently, says Craig Muzilla, Avaki's VP of strategy and marketing. The software identifies the source location of any structured or unstructured data--including relational data, files, XML, and application data--from any production data source and delivers it to the user without creating a duplicate file. "Instead, you cache the results in the grid," he says. "The database administrator determines how often the grid can query and refresh the data. You can still protect your original data, and there's one entry into the database."

Data Grid 4.0 makes data available without creating redundancy within the system. "You're paying for additional database licenses when you create redundant databases," Muzilla says.

Pfizer Inc. is using the previous version of Data Grid as well as Avaki's Comprehensive Grid software to provide researchers with automated, secure, wide-area access to research data and system resources across its global research sites. With Avaki Data Grid, researchers who have been granted access are able to view the most up-to-date version of the data, while the authoritative copy stays where it is, under the control of local administrators. Comprehensive Grid supplements Data Grid's capabilities by adding the ability to also locate and use underutilized CPUs on the grid. The pharmaceutical company is beta testing Data Grid 4.0.

Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems all resell Avaki Data Grid as part of their larger grid-computing packages.