BIG DATA
Concurrent Thinking announces HPC Cluster Appliances
UK cluster computing experts Concurrent Thinking today announced their plans to introduce pre-configured ‘appliance’ products aimed at simplifying the delivery and support of cluster supercomputers. The move marks the company’s aim to extend the reach of its successful HPC cluster business, conducted in the UK through its Streamline Computing trading division, into other territories and market verticals. 
Over recent years, clusters have dominated the High Performance Computing (HPC) sector – in most part due to the cost-effectiveness of the commodity hardware that they are built from. However, the myriad of different OEM vendors, integrators and resellers that provides these systems, the wide choice of operating systems and middleware, and the dearth of skills in HPC have all contributed to high levels of customer uncertainty and dissatisfaction. Clusters that fail to pass basic acceptance tests, that exhibit poor application performance, or that are unsupportable in the field are well documented. At best, most surveys indicate that the cost of ownership of clusters is significantly higher than expected. Concurrent Thinking’s cluster appliances offer a simple and cost-effective solution to cluster deployment, management and support. Developed around an extensible service-oriented architecture and web services, individual appliances provide key services such as cluster management, user login, file-serving and visualization, all within a tightly-integrated and highly-optimized environment. The products are certified against a wide range of third-party servers, high performance interconnects and storage devices. “Our cluster appliance products provide the basic building blocks of an integrated cluster supercomputer,” said John Taylor, CTO of Concurrent Thinking. “By supplying a common infrastructure that supports third party cluster hardware, we not only enable users to enjoy the full benefits of customer choice – with respect to both hardware and software – but can ensure that they have an optimally configured and reliable HPC solution. The appliance approach is really a means of delivering this technology in a systematic fashion, and we believe it’s the natural next-step in the evolution of the cluster. We’re very excited about the opportunities that this opens up for the company, our third party software and hardware partners and our end-users.” Concurrent Thinking’s first product, concurrentCONTROL, is one of several appliances that are scheduled for release over the coming months. concurrentCONTROL provides a comprehensive system deployment and management solution for HPC clusters through a refined and intuitive web-based interface. The product is a core component of the company’s appliance framework and includes an O/S-neutral software management system that enables remote system upgrade and roll-back capabilities. Concurrent Thinking will be exhibiting at the Supercomputing Conference (SC’07) in Nevada, USA from November 10 -16, 2007.
Over recent years, clusters have dominated the High Performance Computing (HPC) sector – in most part due to the cost-effectiveness of the commodity hardware that they are built from. However, the myriad of different OEM vendors, integrators and resellers that provides these systems, the wide choice of operating systems and middleware, and the dearth of skills in HPC have all contributed to high levels of customer uncertainty and dissatisfaction. Clusters that fail to pass basic acceptance tests, that exhibit poor application performance, or that are unsupportable in the field are well documented. At best, most surveys indicate that the cost of ownership of clusters is significantly higher than expected. Concurrent Thinking’s cluster appliances offer a simple and cost-effective solution to cluster deployment, management and support. Developed around an extensible service-oriented architecture and web services, individual appliances provide key services such as cluster management, user login, file-serving and visualization, all within a tightly-integrated and highly-optimized environment. The products are certified against a wide range of third-party servers, high performance interconnects and storage devices. “Our cluster appliance products provide the basic building blocks of an integrated cluster supercomputer,” said John Taylor, CTO of Concurrent Thinking. “By supplying a common infrastructure that supports third party cluster hardware, we not only enable users to enjoy the full benefits of customer choice – with respect to both hardware and software – but can ensure that they have an optimally configured and reliable HPC solution. The appliance approach is really a means of delivering this technology in a systematic fashion, and we believe it’s the natural next-step in the evolution of the cluster. We’re very excited about the opportunities that this opens up for the company, our third party software and hardware partners and our end-users.” Concurrent Thinking’s first product, concurrentCONTROL, is one of several appliances that are scheduled for release over the coming months. concurrentCONTROL provides a comprehensive system deployment and management solution for HPC clusters through a refined and intuitive web-based interface. The product is a core component of the company’s appliance framework and includes an O/S-neutral software management system that enables remote system upgrade and roll-back capabilities. Concurrent Thinking will be exhibiting at the Supercomputing Conference (SC’07) in Nevada, USA from November 10 -16, 2007.