INDUSTRY

Supercomputing Online is building a loyal following by working hard to bridge the gap between the community that fully understands the unprecedented value of supercomputing, and those technology customers who may not be sure yet. We want to help dispel the myths about supercomputing while driving home the compelling fact that these unique problem solving systems are quickly becoming the new engine of business. For that reason, we asked the leading vendor of Grid Computing solutions to provide a brief overview of the Grid work the company is involved in. To do that, we interviewed Shahin Khan, vice president of high performance technical computing at Sun Microsystems. Supercomputing Online: What is Grid Computing? Khan: Whatever your business, it makes good economic sense to use the IT infrastructure you've already got to raise productivity, maintain availability, and minimize downtime. Grid Computing, named after the all-familiar power grid, lets you bring together all your heterogeneous resources and allocate them efficiently to applications within your enterprise and beyond. Supercomputing Online: That is a compelling vision. Who could benefit from Grid Computing? Khan: Grid Computing is more than just a vision; it is real. Companies of all sizes and across many industries have already employed Sun’s Grid Everywhere solutions to solve common business challenges. Benefits realized include: cost reduction, shorter time to market, increased quality and innovation, and the ability to do things previously not possible. Supercomputing Online: How does Grid Computing work? Khan: Essentially, grid computing taps into unused compute power and applies it to an application in the most efficient way. In effect, grid computing is designed to make sure an organization gets what it pays for. With a grid solution, an organization can get as much as five to 10 times the usable power out of systems on the network and increase utilization to as much as 98 percent. How? By pooling assets into a virtual system, a grid provides a single point of access to powerful distributed resources. Supercomputing Online: Is Grid Computing more than just a tool for researchers? Khan: Researchers who solve difficult scientific problems with computers have long understood the value of distributed computing systems. Complex simulations, modeling efforts, and collaboration are mainstays in the world of high-performance technical computing and massive computing power is needed to tackle such computationally intensive tasks. Grids were born from this environment of scientific research, but they have great potential for commercial use. Just like those in the academic environment, commercial organizations work in teams and share resources. Grids expand access to databases, which can then be shared. They speed communication between collaborators working on projects and scale globally. That all translates to a highly effective business tool. In fact, companies today are already exploiting the power of distributed computing through grid deployment--Sun currently has over 8000 grids in place worldwide and that number is growing by about 70 grids per week. Supercomputing Online: Can you give us an example of well-known company that is using Grid Computing? Khan: One such customer, Ford Motor Co., shifted productivity into high gear with the help of our Sun ONE Grid Engine Software. Ford asked its IT departments company-wide to cut costs, without letting quality levels fall. Reducing costs was not easy because of the demanding nature of the compute-intensive applications the groups need to run, such as finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, and design-of-experiment simulations. The Sun ONE Grid Engine aggregated available compute resources into a virtual resource pool, enabling Ford's IT groups to deliver compute cycles as a service over the network. The net result: Maximum utilization at lower costs. By leveraging Sun ONE Grid Engine, Ford engineers are performing complex DOE studies in 15 minutes--a task that used to take days. Supercomputing Online: Are different types of Grids used for different applications? Khan: Distinct types of grids include: Compute grids, which are distributed compute resources consisting of desktop, server, and High Performance Computing systems. Data grids — distributed storage devices including disk and tape devices along with the necessary software to migrate data as needed. And Visualization grids, which are visualization technologies that range from server-based workgroup visualization systems to high-end, immersive visualization environments. Supercomputing Online: What building blocks does Sun provide for Grid Computing? Khan: Our core technology is the Sun ONE Grid Engine Software, which is a distributed management product that optimizes utilization of software and hardware resources. Grid Engine software runs on all of our server products. If you need a powerful grid in a box, the new Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid Rack System is a pre-integrated, ready-to-install product that provides fast, easy deployment of Linux/X86 compute nodes and management software. The real beauty of Grid Computing is that it can leverage your existing systems in a big way. The Sun Infrastructure Solution for Grid Computing is designed to help IT organizations architect and deploy the appropriate Grid Computing infrastructure that contributes directly to their key business goals. The solution combines services, Reference Architectures, Sun Fire V60x Compute Grid, storage and software needed for setting up a grid environment faster, easier and at a lower cost than competitors. Supercomputing Online: How can Sun help businesses take advantage of Grid Computing? Khan: The good news I want to share with your readers is that now, Sun can show you the way to solve your IT resource challenges, from departmental level to global grid computing. Sun can also help take the risk and cost out of deploying, growing, and managing Grid Computing infrastructure. Because Sun solves the technology and infrastructure issues, customers are free to concentrate on what they know best, their business or their science. This approach can literally provide results and competitive advantage that couldn’t be obtained before. And finally, Sun is committed to providing solutions that solve real-world problems through Sun’s extensive end-to- end product line, award-winning Sun ONE Grid Engine software, and powerful system- and grid-management capabilities that make Grid Computing easier than ever to deploy.