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BASINGSTOKE, UK -- Platform Computing, a leader in distributed computing software, announced that the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) has selected Platform LSF MultiCluster to build an enterprise Grid solution. The Institute, which manages databases of biological data, including nucleic acid, protein sequences and macromolecular structures, will use Platform software, including Platform LSF, to facilitate resource sharing and increase collaboration among international researchers who use its numerous databases and information services. “Grid computing answered our requirement for a scalable computing infrastructure to support research and development activities within a demanding and heterogeneous computing environment,” said Petteri Jokinen, Head of Systems and Networking, EBI. “With Platform’s solution, we can harness all of our compute resources to fulfill intensive research demands. In addition, the data in our flat files is doubling every year, so it is important that we have a scalable and robust solution. To date, Platform’s solutions have boosted enterprise productivity and enabled us to achieve faster results.” Used extensively in Grid computing, Platform LSF MultiCluster is an intelligent workload management solution that optimises the use of enterprise-wide resources by providing transparent on-demand access to valuable computing resources. The software controls and coordinates jobs across multiple geographic locations to enable high throughput capacity and capability. At the EBI, Platform LSF MultiCluster manages workload across a 140 CPU, multi-platform server farm which includes Compaq AlphaServers, SGI servers and 40 Linux PCs, which runs the EBI’s 200-gigabyte database of flat files on protein and genomic sequencing. “With Grid computing, EBI can improve collaboration and reduce IT costs by enabling transparent collaboration and resource sharing,” explains Alain Wiedmer, Vice President, Europe, Platform Computing. “With Platform’s Grid computing solutions, the EBI will be able to harness unlimited compute power to facilitate access to information and share distributed resources to pursue common goals.” The EBI has used Platform's workload management software, Platform LSF, since 1997 to optimise its enterprise computing resources. Earlier this year, the Institute decided to make a number of changes to further increase the manageability and performance of its computing resources. This included adopting Red Hat's open source Linux operating environment and splitting the existing domain into a number of sub-domains, spread across its PC farm of 80 CPUs. Platform LSF MultiCluster was deployed across these sub-domains, allowing any future upgrades to be staggered across the PC farm, domain by domain. The EBI is a non-profit academic organisation that forms part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). The mission of the EBI is to ensure that the growing body of information from molecular biology and genome research is placed in the public domain and is accessible freely to all facets of the scientific community in ways that promote scientific progress. The EBI serves researchers in molecular biology, genetics, medicine and agriculture from academia, and the agricultural, biotechnology, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. It does this by building, maintaining and making available databases and information services relevant to molecular biology, as well as carrying out research in bioinformatics and computational molecular biology. Life sciences organisations around the globe are incorporating Platform’s distributed computing solutions into the discovery process to maximise the productivity and potential of their existing technology investments. Platform seamlessly integrates with and distributes application workload, allowing scientists to exploit and analyse diverse types and sources of biological data in a shorter period of time, deliver more accurate results to reduce failure rates and enable better decision-making earlier in the discovery process. Platform solutions currently distribute computing jobs to servers and workstations in more than half of the Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and chemical companies. Platform solutions enabled the Sanger Centre, a world-leading genome research centre in the UK, to crack the DNA code of Chromosome 22, paving the way for huge advances in medical diagnosis and treatment. Platform also played an integral role in enabling Celera Genomics to map the human genome more than two years ahead of schedule. For more information visit www.platform.com or www.ebi.ac.uk