Monday 15 March 2010
Platform Computing, the leader in cluster,
grid and cloud management software, is expanding cloud computing capabilities
for high performance computing (HPC) with two new offerings. The company today
announced the release of Platform ISF Adaptive Cluster, a product that
dynamically changes the operating systems and personalities of compute nodes
managed by Platform LSF and Platform Symphony. It effectively increases
application capacity and resource utilization by consolidating heterogeneous
application clusters and allows organizations to build an internal cloud for
HPC. Platform Computing also announced new cloud bursting capabilities that
will permit Platform HPC customers to seamlessly redirect peak workloads from
their internal HPC infrastructure to external cloud resources on a pay-per-use
basis in order to optimally meet service levels. Together, these offerings
let HPC users take advantage of cloud computing by utilizing both internal
private resources and external public cloud offerings.
“Our 17 years in the HPC industry have proven to us that the demand for
compute resources will continue to grow exponentially, driving organizations
to seek ways to maximize their existing infrastructures to meet increasing
capacity needs,” said Peter Nichol, General Manager, HPC Business Unit,
Platform Computing. “It’s clear that the future of HPC lies in cloud
computing, which is why Platform is partnering with cloud leaders and
developing its solution set to allow organizations to take full advantage of
their existing infrastructure investments while capitalizing on the endless
capacity of the cloud.”
Platform ISF Adaptive Cluster
Platform ISF Adaptive Cluster is a new product offering in the Platform ISF
family that enables organizations to create an internal cloud for running HPC
applications and is integrated with Platform LSF and Platform Symphony. The
product dynamically changes the operating system and associated application
stack on demand thereby maximizing resource usage and service levels based on
workload. It does this by automatically provisioning Linux and Windows
operating systems from bare metal or initiating the right guest operating
system within a virtual machine container on the compute nodes upon
application demand.
To ensure application availability and guaranteed performance, many
enterprises employ multiple HPC clusters, each assigned to run a specific
application that requires either a Linux or Windows environment. Inevitably
this results in cluster silos and “cluster sprawls” with low utilization and
high management costs. Platform ISF Adaptive Cluster consolidates the
previous application silos into an internal cloud environment that dynamically
provisions Linux and Windows operating systems based on application demand to
maximize resource usage and service levels. Utilization rates of separate
server clusters typically ranging between 40 - 50 percent - can be increased
to 80 - 90 percent.
“While the 30 - 50 percent improvement in cluster utilization rates speaks for
itself, it’s the fact that we’re leveraging concepts from cloud computing and
applying them to HPC cluster silos for optimization, that really demonstrates
Platform’s commitment to driving the next wave of HPC management software,”
said Jingwen Wang, Vice President Products, Platform Computing. “Our HPC
customers in industries such as research, oil and gas, industrial
manufacturing, and financial services will benefit dramatically from the
improved HPC infrastructure agility by saving on hardware and operational
costs, maximizing HPC resource utilization and improving their end-user
productivity.”
The Platform ISF Adaptive Cluster is available immediately and can be
purchased directly from Platform or its resellers. For additional information
please visit
http://www.platform.com/Products/platform-isf/platform-isf-adaptive-cluster.
Cloud Bursting Capability
Delivered as a solution in the Platform ISF family, the new cloud bursting
capability allows Platform HPC customers to access external cloud resources to
offload peak workloads from internal HPC infrastructure on a pay-per-use
basis. The new solution allows HPC users to use external resources while
operating in a managed, private cloud environment as required by enterprise
governance and compliance regulations. Platform is working with external cloud
service providers to publish a machine image of the Platform HPC management
software stack, which includes Platform LSF, Platform Symphony, Platform
Cluster Manager and the new Platform MPI, to ensure Platform customers have a
single, user-friendly interface to transparently leverage both their internal
enterprise infrastructure for HPC and the external cloud for overflow.
With economic pressure forcing existing infrastructure to handle workload
demands that often exceed capacity, many Platform customers are investigating
alternative infrastructure models, such as cloud, to more effectively
provision for peak workload spikes.
About Platform Computing
Platform Computing is the leader in cluster, grid and cloud management
software - serving more than 2,000 of the world’s most demanding
organizations. For 17 years, our workload and resource management solutions
have delivered IT responsiveness and lower costs for enterprise and HPC
applications. Platform has strategic relationships with Cray, Dell, HP, IBM,
Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, and SAS. Visit www.platform.com.
Consonus
Consonus today announced two complimentary events for IT professionals: “Streamline Storage with Virtualization” on Tuesday 15 September 2009 at the Consonus Data Center in Winston-Salem, NC and “Virtualization Showcase” on Thursday 17 September 2009 at Consonus headquarters in Cary, NC.
The events will provide attendees with education and information on Virtualization technologies and strategies that can help IT departments optimize data center performance, reduce costs, and improve operational flexibility. The “Transform Your Data Center” events feature Consonus Virtualization specialists, industry experts from leading Virtualization (http://www.consonus.com/solutions/virtualization.aspx) technology providers, and experienced Virtualization users.
Sessions range from presentations to case studies and demonstrations from HP, NetApp, Hitachi Data Systems, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, and VMWare. The events are designed for IT managers, systems architects, and other IT professionals responsible for cloud computing (http://www.consonus.com/data-centers/data-center-virtualization.aspx), data protection and security, business continuity, and disaster recovery. Learn more about the events and register at www.transform-my-data-center.com.
Event details:
Streamline Storage with Virtualization Tuesday, 15 September 2009 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. A World-Class Data Center Winston-Salem, NC Complimentary lunch Virtualization Showcase Thursday, 17 September 2009 2:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Consonus Headquarters 301 Gregson Drive Cary, North Carolina 27511 Complimentary social hour featuring beverages and light snacks
Register now for one or both Consonus Virtualization Events (http://www.transform-my-data-center.com/).
About Consonus Technologies Consonus Technologies, Inc. is a leading national provider of IT infrastructure, data center services, colocation, and managed IT services solutions based in Cary, NC. Offering a comprehensive suite of IT infrastructure services, combined with highly secure and reliable data centers across the country, Consonus provides customers with complete solutions addressing disaster recovery and data center availability, manageability, and consolidation. Visit Consonus Technologies on the Web at www.consonus.com.
HP cloud computing platform
Technology solutions provider HP announced on Monday along with the Canadian arm of GS1 the development of a cloud-based recall service that traces and removes potentially harmful food products from the supply chain.
No financial details were disclosed.
According to the company, the GS1 Canada Product Recall service will run on the HP cloud computing platform for manufacturing. Food and consumer products organisations can use the service to reduce errors, decrease the amount of time it takes to respond to a recall and lower the costs associated with managing the recall process.
The service will offer businesses: handling, disposal and reimbursement instructions to accelerate the recall process; the ability to customise alerts and target specific retailers with relevant information; a traceable security and audit trail to ensure compliance; as well as built-in security that sends notifications to authorised users and targeted retailers.
The service, developed in conjunction with HP Labs, consists of HP software, services and infrastructure as well as the Microsoft .NET Framework.
GS1 is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving supply chain efficiencie
VMworld 2009
VMware, Inc, the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, today unveiled the for the most important virtualization event of the year, VMworld 2009.
Underscoring the conference theme, “Hello Freedom,” more than 300 presentations and breakout sessions from companies and customers driving innovation in the virtualization industry will focus on the liberating and transformative effects of virtualization on nearly every aspect of datacenter, desktop and cloud computing.
Leading off the general session keynote presentations will be VMware President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maritz who will examine the rapidly expanding role of virtualization as IT organizations implement innovative solutions to achieve unprecedented levels of agility, reliability and cost savings. Maritz will deliver his keynote on Tuesday, September 1 at 8:00 a.m. PT. VMware Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development Dr. Stephen Herrod will discuss the future of virtualization and the evolution of computing in his keynote address on Wednesday, September 2 at 8:00 a.m. PT. Both presentations will be available via webcast at: www.vmware.com/go/vmworld-general-sessions.
The “Hello Freedom” theme highlights the ability of virtualization to empower IT professionals to rid themselves of the technical limitations of conventional computing, and recognizes the resourceful, creative and forward-thinking IT professionals and developers who leverage virtualization to turn possibilities into reality and potential into impact. Thousands of VMware customers worldwide are transforming their organizations by saying “goodbye” to the inflexible and inefficient traditional approach to computing and saying “hello” to a future of infinite possibilities powered by virtualization.
The “Hello Freedom” theme will be further amplified by the conference’s first Technology Exchange Developer Day on Monday, August 31 with nearly 300 developers attending. VMware Chief Operating Officer Tod Nielsen will be the featured keynote speaker. The industry’s leading software developers and engineers will also be presenting the latest technologies for building robust solutions on the VMware vSphere(TM) 4 platform. Attendees will be able to participate in beginner and advanced level sessions that provide an overview and best practices in the adoption of VMware’s developer APIs, including the VMware vSphere 4 Web Services Software Development Kit (SDK).
VMworld 2009 will feature more than 300 breakout sessions in six tracks: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Desktop Virtualization, Enterprise Applications, Technology & Architecture, Virtualization 101, and Virtualization Management. VMworld will also feature 12 instructor-led and nine self-paced labs with over 10,000 total lab seats.
VMworld 2009 Online Resources
* For a list of VMworld 2009 exhibitors and sponsors, please visit: http://www.vmworld2009.com/sponsors-exhibitors/
* The VMworld 2009 agenda is available at: http://www.vmworld.com/community/conferences/2009/agenda/
* For more information about the VMware Technology Exchange, please visit:http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/techexchange
* To register to attend VMworld 2009, please visit: http://www.vmworld2009.com
* To network and join VMworld discussions on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, please visit: http://www.vmworld2009.com/networking/
About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter — bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes. Customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 150,000 customers and more than 22,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC).
VMware, VMworld, and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this press release which are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate, but are not limited, to continuing customer adoption and deployment of virtualization products and architecture. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) the duration and deepening of negative economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in consumer or information technology spending; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the virtualization market, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (iv) our customers’ ability to develop, and to transition to, new products, (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology initiatives; (vi) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software; (vii) changes to product development timelines; and (viii) our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
Contacts:
Mary Ann Gallo
VMware Public Relations
magallo@vmware.com
(650) 427-3271
Liz Clinkenbeard
OutCast Communications for VMware
liz@outcastpr.com
(415) 392-8282
Job in Cloud Computing
If you need a job or if you need to find skilled employees, look to the clouds at www.cloudjobs.net where you can post or find a job in the Cloud Computing Jobs.
SaaS is the latest innovation in Internet technology. The term “cloud” is a metaphor used to describe the Internet. Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them.
Parent company, Cloudcor, Inc. recently revised their online service portal to make it easier to use and more intuitive than any other online resource offers both free and paid services which can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
The new control panel is easy to understand and even easier to use meaning visitors will spend more time on finding that right job instead of trying to figure out how to use the system
.
There are many jobs already available at www.CloudJobs.net including jobs that require vmware certification and experience. HPC and data center specialists are also in high demand on http://www.CloudJobs.net.
Cloud Jobs was founded in 2008 by former Fortune 50 consultants with a great deal of experience in IT technologies, computing models, software services and more. Our newsletter, the Cloud Computing Group, is read by over 17,500 readers, making it currently the largest Cloud and grid computing group in the world. We have successfully helped qualified professionals land careers in some of the world’s leading companies including: Intel, Microsoft , Amazon, Argonne National Lab, SGI, Hitachi, CitiCorp, IBM, HP, SUN and more.
For more information about Cloud Jobs and its services, please contact Khazret Sapenov at:
Cloudcor Inc.
2980 Don Mills Rd., Suite 910
Toronto, Ontario, M2J 3B9 Canada
tel: (510) 984-2312
fax: (510) 373-1709
e-mail: info@cloudjobs.net
Website: http://www.CloudJobs.net
Press Information:
Calciustech
Cloudcor Inc
2980 Don Mills Rd, Suite 910
Contact Person:
Cloudcor Inc
Finding a job is easy at CloudJobs.net
Phone: 510-984-2312 x2544
High Performance Computing Survey
Over a quarter (28 percent) of IT executives surveyed are planning to deploy private cloud in 2009, according to a survey of delegates by Platform Computing at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC’09) in June 2009. This planned adoption of private cloud within High Performance Computing (HPC) is being driven by the increased workload demand of applications and the need for IT to cut costs at the same time. As the leader in grid and cloud computing software, Platform Computing has been tracking adoption of private clouds and this level of intent to deploy reflects steadily changing attitudes in IT departments.
Cloud computing is an IT delivery model that provides infrastructure and computer resources as a service. By implementing a private cloud, IT leverages the power of sharing to maximize the utilization of compute, networking and storage resources in an organization. The compute-intensive nature of HPC applications lends themselves to the benefits of shared resource pools of private clouds. The concept of cloud computing has generated considerable buzz in recent months and is expected to become increasingly popular over the next few years. According to Gartner, by 2012 80 percent of Fortune 1000 enterprises will be paying for some cloud computing services and 30 percent will be paying for cloud computing infrastructure services.
The survey also cited that IT executives are positive about the benefits of the technology, with most (41 percent) citing ‘improving efficiency’ as the biggest motivation for establishing a private cloud. This was followed by ‘resource scalability’ (18 percent), ‘cutting costs’ (17 percent), ‘experimenting with cloud computing’ (15 percent) and ‘improving IT responsiveness’ (9 percent).
The majority (67 percent) said they are planning to run simulation and modelling applications on cloud, highlighting the need for greater power for compute intensive tasks. When asked what other applications they were planning to run using cloud, 32 percent said web services, while 18 percent said business analytics.
Yet before this takes place, several internal hurdles need to be overcome. Business decision makers are not fully aware of the benefits the technology can deliver — according to the survey findings, 76 percent of IT executives admit they do not feel that business decision makers understand the potential of private clouds. Also, according to respondents, over one third (37 percent) felt organizational culture was the biggest barrier to establishing a private cloud. The survey demonstrates that while IT executives recognize the benefits that private clouds can deliver over the traditional approach to IT, and want to deploy quickly, some decision-makers still need convincing. Others cited complexity of managing (26 percent), security (21 percent), upfront costs (8 percent) and application software licensing (8 percent).
“The private cloud route offers organizations a responsive, cost effective infrastructure model and supports IT’s obligation to oversee fundamental corporate requirements, including governance, compliance, business continuity, cost management and risk management,” said Randy Clark, chief marketing officer, Platform Computing. “IT executives are clearly convinced about the efficiencies and cost savings that private clouds will deliver, but as the research highlights, senior business decision makers are not yet on-board. If enterprises are to reap the full benefits of private clouds, the IT function will evolve to become a business service partner to the business. While this transition will not happen overnight it’s hugely important and will require internal leadership and world-class vendor support.”
Notes to editor: Survey of 103 IT executives completed at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in June 2009. For more information about the conference please visit: http://www.supercomp.de/isc09/.
About Platform Computing
Platform Computing is the leader in grid and cloud computing software that dynamically connects IT resources to workload demand according to business policies. Over 2,000 of the world’s largest organizations rely on our solutions to improve IT productivity and reduce data center costs. Platform has strategic relationships with Cray, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, and SAS. Building on 17 years of market leadership, Platform continues to help data centers be more efficient, responsive and dynamic. Visit www.platform.com.
Provided below are two quotes, one from Larry Ellison of Oracle and one from Andy Isherwood of HP (both from 2008 so maybe their perspectives have changed). Not everyone, even those that would be serving this new Cloud Computing environment, are convinced that Cloud Computing is a new and improved way to do business. In fact, these two are claiming that they are already doing it. Luckily for us, not everyone is of the same mindset as these two but clients do have concerns and in some instances, rightly so.
The interesting thing about Cloud Computing is that we’ve redefined Cloud Computing to include everything that we already do. We don’t understand what we would do differently in the light of Cloud Computing other than change the wording of some of our ads. Gartner is also stressing to clients that they need to evaluate providers and service providers to ensure that their decisions to move to a Cloud Computing environment is the right one for them and their shareholders.
Organizations potentially can gain a competitive or cost advantage through selective adoption of cloud computing, but not without first taking a comprehensive look at the associated risks, ensuring that they are consistent with business goals, along with the expectations of regulators, auditors, shareholders and partners. Clients are not blind to these issues and you can see by this chart that their concerns map exactly to what we have been discussing as concerns with Cloud Computing.
National Institute on Standards and Technology’s Peter Mell said Monday that the US needs “minimal” standards to define cloud computing. Mell, senior computer scientist for NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory, stressed that he was not speaking in an official capacity even as he discussed his draft definitions for cloud computing. He said he saw no issues with the U.S. putting “low-sensitivity data” on public cloud services; indeed, data.gov and USAspending.gov are currently hosted on cloud provider Terremark. There is a strong push from the top down; newly minted Federal CIO Vivek Kundra is pushing hard for cloud computing usage.
Kevin Jackson, VP of Dataline, met with Kundra and spoke of his overriding determination to cut computing costs by using virtualization and public cloud. Dataline provides IT services for the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, according to Jackson. He said Kundra wanted to change the procurement system to favor new, cheaper technologies and push towards easier collaboration. Federal CIOs, he warned, would be held to task by Kundra if they did not look at cloud computing first. The U.S. government is on track to spend more than $77 billion dollars on IT in 2010, according to recent reports, mostly in services from EDS and SAP, making it one of the largest consumers of IT in the world. The conference discussions will yield a report on how to start standardizing cloud technology to be presented to the National Defense University Cloud Symposia on Wednesday. Fed CIO Kundra will present a keynote at the Symposia, as well as presentations by Google, HP, IBM and others.
Kundra and his team are working on launching a “digital storefront for cloud computing solutions” that would offer for federal and other government buyers an experience that “is the same or similar to the experience that you and I have in our personal lives when we go to online stores like amazon or eBay or any of the other online vendors.”
This move to the cloud is going to be good news for Amazon, RackSpace and Microsoft, all of which we think are going to be competing with with traditional suppliers of information technology to the government. Others say that Terremark, HP, Google, Cisco and various systems integrators could be among the big winners. (GigaOM Pro, our $79-a-year subscription-only research service, has started following these developments closely.) For the U.S. government, cloud computing could be an easy way to deal with urgent and important issues, such as upgrading the federal and state technology infrastructure without costly upgrades. If Kundra is successful in his efforts, then the sheer buying power of the government is going help cloud computing reach a tipping point.
In high tech as elsewhere, it’s often a matter of historical accident and political maneuvering that determines which approach wins out in a particular area of technology. And it can be a high-stakes game for the companies involved, with big players often seeking to position their approach as a “standard” even if it’s only standard in the sense of being ubiquitous (think Microsoft Windows) while the smaller guys tend to favor approaches blessed by standards bodies or at least industry corsortia. In cloud computing, we’re seeing almost all the forms of standards-making coming into play with the primary goal of promoting interoperability among different cloud service providers and between private and public clouds. On the de jure side, the most significant standards-making effort is taking place under the auspices of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), an established organization in the management standards space. AMD, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, Savvis, Sun Microsystems, and VMware announced in April 2009 (PDF) that they would comprise the board for an Open Cloud Standards Incubator within the DMTF.
And it’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) that has clearly emerged as the de facto standard for IaaS. The fact that Amazon is one of the first vendors that comes to mind in just about any discussion of public clouds is one indication. Another is the growing ecosystem of companies like RightScale that add additional features to AWS–not uniquely, but first and foremost. We now even have an open-source project and company, Eucalyptus, that lets organizations implement their own clouds that are compatible with many AWS services. This announcement doesn’t fundamentally change the landscape. However, it does give an already well-established IaaS vendor a point of clear differentiation from its biggest competitor.
