Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Networking
    • Storage
    • Virtualization

    Penguin Offers Cloud Computing for HPC

    By
    Jeff Burt
    -
    August 11, 2009
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Penguin Computing is creating a cloud environment specifically for the high-performance computing space.

      Penguin Aug. 11 announced its POD (Penguin on Demand) service that is aimed at researchers, scientists and businesses that need extra compute power for their HPC applications or organizations that want HPC capabilities without having to incur the acquisition and maintenance costs of the cluster hardware.

      Charles Wuischpard, president and CEO of the Linux cluster vendor, said Penguin officials saw a need for a cloud computing environment that was made for HPC applications. Popular public clouds, like Amazon’s EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) are good for the transaction-intensive, general-purpose applications, but are not made for the highly parallel tasks that are found in HPC environments.

      “The workloads are different than what is on Amazon,” Wuischpard said in an interview.

      Penguin has built a cloud computing service based in a colocation center in Utah that is made for those HPC workloads. POD is built out of highly optimized Linux clusters that are powered by about 1,200 processing cores of Intel’s Xeon 5400 processors. It also takes advantage of high-speed interconnect technologies, including InfiniBand and Gigabit Ethernet, and a high-speed NAS (network attached storage) from NetApp.

      POD also comes with Penguin workstations powered by Nvidia’s Tesla graphics processors. In addition, Penguin is not virtualizing its servers, as is normally done at places like Amazon’s EC2. Instead, Penguin officials decided to offer customers all the resources of a server to increase performance and give businesses access to all the I/O, which is important when running the highly parallel, memory-intensive HPC workloads, Wuischpard said.

      The result is that HPC workloads run as much as 30 times faster on the Penguin cloud computing service than on EC2. For example, one workload that takes 18 hours on EC2 can be completed in 30 minutes on Penguin’s POD.

      “Amazon does an excellent job of catering to server-based workloads,” said Josh Bernstein, HPC architect and a principal designer of the POD technology for Penguin. However, its EC2 is not built for HPC tasks.

      The entire environment is managed by Penguin’s Scyld ClusterWare software, and the vendor offers a variety of support services, including application set up, creating an HPC environment and ongoing maintenance. Penguin also is working with software makers who will offer their HPC software on POD.

      POD is the latest step for Penguin officials in their efforts to focus the company on HPC. Since taking over the reins of the company two years ago, Wuischpard has shed a lot of Penguin’s ancillary Linux computing business to focus on HPC, a move he said has resulted in strong growth during that time.

      Penguin’s POD is a further example of how Wuischpard and other officials are looking to expand the company’s reach.

      “The way it changes our business is that it takes us out of the pure hardware game,” he said.

      Jeff Burt
      Jeffrey Burt has been with eWEEK since 2000, covering an array of areas that includes servers, networking, PCs, processors, converged infrastructure, unified communications and the Internet of things.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×