Nectec plans wider applications for grid computing centre

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) plans to enhance the facilities of the Thai National Grid Centre, to serve both government and private sectors, after the centre is transferred to Nectec from the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) later this year.

The Thai National Grid Centre is a national project that has been funded by Sipa over the past three years. It aims to facilitate research and development in five focused areas, including life sciences (biotechnology, drug design and biomedical); digital media (animation and multimedia); enterprise computing; computer science and engineering (mainly for the automobile industry); and education (grid teaching and electronic learning by grid).

Sipa has submitted a proposal to the Cabinet, by way of the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, seeking to transfer the grid centre to Nectec, under the Science and Technology Ministry. It is expected that the transition will be complete by the end of the government's current fiscal year on September 30.

 Nectec's director Pansak Siriruchatapong, who now is acting director of the Thai National Grid Centre, said that Nectec planned to launch more applications over the grid computing infrastructure after it took control in October, including, for example, the national archive storage.

"The Thai National Grid Centre was a three-year Sipa project. It is now complete, and the centre will be transferred from Sipa to Nectec," Pansak said.

Apart from the grid centre's main function as a facility for research and development, it will serve other government and private sector applications requiring high performance grid computing, he said.