Distributed Thinking

AHM2007 saw several examples of the industrial exploitation of e-Science technologies. I organised a session on this theme for Grid Computing Now! (GCN), which was attended by some 300 people. Jim Austin and Yike Guo gave talks about their contrasting approaches to commercialising their research. Jim has built his company, Cybula , from income, opting for the advantage of control and accepting slower growth. Yike has chosen an investment-based approach for Inforsense , achieving the fast growth required by his funders. Both explained how they found markets for their technologies. They also reflected on how to maintain both academic and commercial careers, using each to benefit the other while balancing their sometimes contrasting demands. I followed with a short talk that gave a high-level outline of the state of advanced IT infrastructure in industry, drawing on some of the presentations given our Grids Mean Business track at OGF20 . Of course, IT infrastructure is only one aspec