The N1 Grid is Sun's vision, strategy and architecture, as well as a set of products, that redefine the nature of data center computing. The N1 Grid architecture uses the network, physically and logically, as its fundamental organizing principle. It is about understanding the challenges inherent in delivering services and managing today's complex IT infrastructures, recognizing the various technology and business trends that have led us here. By reconciling these challenges and trends, the N1 Grid architecture leads us to the conclusion that a fundamental shift is required in our understanding, architecting, and management of the data center so that the economics of delivering services can be radically changed. The book starts with an overview of how the N1 Grid architecture came about and takes the reader through the process of preparing, architecting, and implementing data center infrastructure that realizes the N1 Grid architecture vision and enables services and value to be delivered more efficiently and more flexibility today, while preparing for future technologies.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jason Carolan is a Senior Architect and Principal Engineer at Sun Microsystems. He has spent most of his five years at Sun in Sun Services, focussed on developing solutions for Sun's customers, systems architecture, and improving architectural quality through patterns. Jason joined the N1 Grid software team over two years ago, contributing to many of the early internal and external documents. He has also been responsible for the design of the Service Delivery Network Architecture, Sun Professional Services's data network architecture standard--one of the best examples of modular architecture. He also speaks regularly at conferences around the World about network design, security, and the N1 Grid architecture. Jason lives in Colorado where he enjoys the amazing snow and sun.

Scott Radeztsky is one of Sun's Principal Engineers. His six years at Sun have been focussed on architecture, performance and tuning, education, and working with customers to navigate uncharted architecture, technology, and operations territory in novel solution deployments. As examples of this, Scott has had the unique opportunity of directly architecting and building some of Sun's first internal and external customer-based N1 Grid software environments and is now focussed in the areas of edge computing and Sun's next generation of systems. Before joining Sun, Scott earned a Ph.D. in Particle Physics from the University of Wisconsin, using the Web and related technologies for analysis and collaboration since their inception. Scott is grateful for the patient support and understanding of his family during this book creation effort.

Paul Strong is a Systems Architect at Sun Microsystems, working in the N1 Grid software product group. He has spent most of his seven years at Sun focussed on resource management and availability and joined the N1 Grid software team at its inception, over three years ago. This is Paul's first official authoring credit, although he is an unaccredited contributor to the Sun BluePrints book on Resource Management. He also speaks regularly at conferences. He is a native of England, yet transplanted to California, is a keen musician, and holds a degree in Physics, specializing in Astrophysics, from the Victoria University of Manchester, England.

Ed Turner is an Architect in Sun's Technology and Solutions Organization, focused on supporting major customers in the telecommunications industry. Leveraging his seven plus years of working various technical and management roles at Sun, he focuses his efforts on guiding his customer's strategic architecture. Ed had the unique opportunity of directly architecting and building some of Sun's first significant customer-based N1 Grid software environments. When not spending his off-hours with his wonderful family, Ed enjoys long distance motorcycle touring. Currently, Ed resides in the Atlanta, GA, area and has a BSCS degree from the University of Maryland.