Platform Computing Makes HPC in the Cloud a Reality

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November 15, 2010
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Platform Computing Makes HPC in the Cloud a Reality

Company Offers Three Solutions to Seamlessly Cloud Burst HPC Application Workloads

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 15, 2010/PRNewswire/ -- Platform Computing, the leader in cluster, grid and cloud management software, is making high performance computing (HPC) in cloud environments a reality for HPC data centers. The company has outlined three solutions that simplify the path to the cloud, enabling HPC customers to easily handle unpredictable workloads, take advantage of external cloud resources when internal resources are unavailable and push workloads to the external cloud based on priority and required resources.  Using Platform Computing's flexible and powerful cloud bursting solutions, HPC customers can easily implement HPC cloud environments that are optimally configured based on their requirements.

Supporting Quotes:

-- "Platform Computing's work to simplify the complex work-stream and resource provisioning to the cloud promises to give users access to the vital computing resources they need to conduct their research projects. This is particularly critical to individual developers and smaller teams who often have very large jobs that require hyper-scale computing capabilities," said Donnie Bell, Senior Manager, High Performance Computing Solutions, Dell Inc. "The ability to leverage the massive amount of instantaneous cycles within the 'cloud,' with tools uniquely optimized for that environment, is a huge leap for everyone throughout the scientific and research communities."

-- "External Cloud computing is an increasingly attractive alternative to purchasing additional infrastructure for many organizations because it offers a pay-per-use economic model and supports near instantaneous access to resources.  Successful HPC cloud implementations are dependent on an administrator's ability to automatically designate workloads to run on remote or local resources depending on business requirements.   The management features included in Platform Computing's products enable such control and seamlessly connect physical and cloud-based resources, making the path to the cloud easier," said Ken Hertzler, Vice President, Product Management, Platform Computing.

Key Points:

    --  HPC applications are most commonly used in fields such as aerospace and
        defense, education, research, electronic design automation, financial
        services, government, life sciences, media/digital content creation and
        oil and gas.  These applications have traditionally operated in
        computing environments using dedicated, physical servers that provide
        the compute, storage and network performance necessary to perform
        intensive computing calculations.  Until now, it was very difficult and
        time consuming to distribute the workload to the cloud once these
        physical resources reached maximum utilization.
    --  HPC workloads spike when computational or data-intensive projects
        require additional computing resources.  Business requirements often
        force infrastructure changes to address peak workload demands. This can
        be accomplished two ways: a large capital expenditure to purchase
        additional hardware and software (provisioning for peak workloads) or
        offload the excess demand to an external cloud resource (cloud burst).
    --  Through its cloud computing solutions, Platform Computing helps improve
        utilization and resource capacity while helping organizations avoid the
        costs and delays of large capital purchases.  The company offers three
        separate paths for HPC users to dynamically scale resources to handle
        peak workload necessary for HPC applications:
        --  Solution 1: Integrated Cluster with the Cloud (Platform LSF) - Uses
            Platform LSF's dynamic host capabilities along with a cloud service,
            such as the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), to provide cloud
            resources that appear to operate within the HPC datacenter (local IP
            addresses, host names, etc.).  Platform LSF recognizes outside cloud
            services as valid resources and integrates the resources into the
            HPC infrastructure.  Workloads can then be sent to the cloud portion
            of the HPC infrastructure to run applications as designated by
            policy or on a job-by-job basis.
        --  Solution 2: Multi-Cluster to the Cloud (Platform LSF with Platform
            MultiCluster) - Allows users to start up a new cluster in any cloud
            or hosting provider environment without a dedicated link such as
            Amazon VPC.  Used in conjunction with Platform LSF, Platform
            MultiCluster enables users to distribute workloads between internal
            HPC clusters and external cloud resources, according to policy.
        --  Solution 3: Dynamic Cluster Extension to the Cloud (Platform LSF
            with Platform ISF) -  Combined with Platform LSF, Platform ISF
            creates a powerful and flexible cloud management solution that
            dynamically scales clusters to include resources within the data
            center infrastructure or externally to a cloud provider based on the
            application workload.  Platform ISF includes resource kits to manage
            physical or virtual servers, multiple operating systems, virtual
            machines and cloud resources.

Resources:

    --  http://www.platform.com/private-cloud-computing

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 18 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 http://www.platform.com.

SOURCE  Platform Computing

Platform Computing

CONTACT: Carolina Grimm, North America, Bateman Group, +1-415-503-1818 ext. 16, platform@bateman-group.com, or Amy Gooch, Europe, Hotwire, +44 (0) 20 7608 8354, platform@hotwirepr.com, or Lorraine Sutton, Asia Pacific, Platform Computing, +1-905-948-4247, lorraine@platform.com

Web Site: http://www.platform.com

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