INDUSTRY

SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- Linux NetworX, a provider of powerful and easy-to-manage Linux cluster computing solutions, announced today plans to unveil its innovative ICE Box(TM) 1500 cluster management hardware appliance at the SC2001 trade show in Denver, Nov. 12-15. ICE Box empowers administrators with advanced serial switching and remote power control capabilities, and is the only appliance of its kind designed specifically to improve the manageability of Linux clusters. Computer cluster technology is a method of linking multiple computers, or nodes, together to form a unified and more powerful system. ICE Box features include node health and environmental monitoring, power control, node reset capabilities, and advanced serial switching, which allows administrators to maintain redundant serial connections in a cluster. By providing direct serial access to individual nodes within the cluster, ICE Box delivers a level of control, convenience and manageability not previously available for Linux cluster systems. "IDC's many studies on cost of ownership and return on investment typically show that staffing makes up over fifty percent of the cost of a computing solution," said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president system software research at IDC. "Clustering products, such as ICE Box and ClusterWorX(R), are clearly focused on reducing those costs in an environment in which the power of many systems has been harnessed together for reliability or higher performance." Tularik, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company specializing in drug discovery and development using gene regulation, is using a 150 processor Evolocity(TM) cluster from Linux NetworX, and is one of the first organizations to use ICE Box in production. "The ICE Box appliance is an ideal cluster management tool that provides vital features like serial access to nodes and remote power control -- so I never need to go to the server room," said Gene Cutler, bioinformatics scientist for Tularik. "Cluster management tools from Linux NetworX are setting the standard -- ICE tools allow us to concentrate on finding new genes that cause disease and not worry about cluster management." Until now, cluster management has been a barrier to the wider adoption of Linux clustering. Each Linux NetworX Evolocity(TM) cluster is integrated with ICE cluster management tools, which consist of ICE Box and ClusterWorX. For more detailed information visit www.linuxnetworx.com/news/ice_kit.php