Archive for July, 2008
Introducing new guy need not take forever
Network-delivered computing company Teradici and Dell have collaborated to add Teradici’s PC-over-IP, PCoIP, technology to select Dell Precision workstations.
The PCoIP technology will be integrated with Dell’s Precision R5400 workstation and FX100 remote access product for engineering, product design, animation, and digital imaging.
With the addition of the PCoIP technology, Dell said its Precision platform will offer high resolution, full frame 3D graphics and HD media, with full USB interoperability and secure access for remote workstation users, to enable centrally managed access between the high-performance workstation in the datacenter and a stateless desktop device.
I remain a big fan of the Teradici solution, I saw a demo at the blade systems insight conference and it looks like a great solution for desktop virtualization. It will be interesting to see how Dell can utilize this in the desktop virtualization, trader desktop areas - could we see the Dell virtual trader workstation solution? The Dell blade pc?
The benefits of the virtual desktop in terms of security (hardware and software) as well as the operational benefits of a centralized solution can be very impressive. I wonder if this is the next big thing not just in the city (where we talk about the traders, the developers with their several pcs), but the small/medium business. Where adding a new team member, rebuilding that desktop might simply mean rebooting, deploying a new virtual machine, not the current physical deploy pc, install Windows image, configure for user and everything else. Where bringing a new user on stream might take 30 minutes rather than days - those conversations I’ve had with CIO’s, I can bring a new guy on site in days, but it might take me weeks to set him up, to get him a working computer and email account.
Could it not all be scripted, all part of the click to deploy new user function - deploy a new virtual machine, and run the configure user scripts?
Sun continues expansion in new markets
Sun Microsystems will focus special attention on Africa under a new emerging markets sales geography, which the company expects to drive accelerated expansion and sales coverage across growing markets.
Given the unique challenges faced in Africa, Sun will use the knowledge it has gained in North America and Europe to deliver ecologically sound and economically viable tools, said Hein Van Der Merwe, Sun’s chief technologist for the Middle East and Africa region.
It’s interesting to see how different regions are developing, what is in demand, what works in one region might be the opposite from another. Sun placing attention on markets in Africa could bring real opportunities and market exposure, it will be great to see how they get on, and what technologies/solutions are in demand there - are they interested in blades? Rack servers?
Verari continues to innovate blades for VMWare
http://virtualization.sys-con.com/read/617686.htm
Verari Systems announced that the Verari Systems’ VB1257 VMware ESX 3.5 certified blade delivers twice the number of VMware virtual machines per blade than similar competitive blade offerings while consuming 50% less power. On a per VMware image basis, the VB1257 for the BladeRack 2 XL (BR2-XL) platform provides better total cost of ownership than any competing blade server products. VMware provides TAP program members with tools to develop products that are complementary to VMware virtualization software and help deliver high-value solutions to our joint customers.
The Verari Systems’ VB1257 blade is certified on VMware ESX 3.5 and powered by the latest low power Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors. When combined with the BR2-XL platform, the solution delivers twice the number of VMware virtual machines with energy efficiency, density and scalability while reducing operational expenses.
Configuring the hypervisor, the application or the layered components to your platform is the best way to achieve the most from your infrastructure. Ensuring that the optimal driver packs, firmware and configurations are deployed can change the results of performance and reliability not just of the core hardware, the blade, the server but of the components, the fibre cards etc.
These new Verari blade servers sound interesting, I’ll need to check them out, the fewer physical blades, network cards and infrastructure I have to deploy to deliver my IT, the lower the provisioning, operational and support costs. This becomes an ever important concept as the cost of energy and cooling continues to rise.
Evolution of the cloud from HP, Intel and Yahoo
HP, Intel Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced the creation of a global, multi-data center, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing research and education. The goal of the initiative is to promote open collaboration among industry, academia and governments by removing the financial and logistical barriers to research in data-intensive, Internet-scale computing.
The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed will provide a globally distributed, Internet-scale testing environment designed to encourage research on the software, data center management and hardware issues associated with cloud computing at a larger scale than ever before. The initiative will also support research of cloud applications and services.
HP, Intel and Yahoo! have partnered with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany to form the research initiative. The partnership with Illinois also includes the National Science Foundation.
Very cool, I wonder if we might see more development in terms of products/services around the cloud computing space. It will be interesting to see how cloud computing as a business platform develops, as we abstract the application, the end user from the hardware and as we tier the data center, the infrastructure and the application - might we have different configurations, technologies to achieve the cloud?
The tier1 cloud, the one that delivers core services and functionality to the end user, might use high available redundant compute nodes, the development cloud which rents out application time, space, or power, might run on the cheapest compute nodes in a fresh air cooled data center with cheap storage. How we transform not only the technologies, the best practice not to mention the way we do business including the billing will be the interesting part - how much of my IT transactions do I need to control? How much of the IT function is core to my business, and how much can be outsourced to the ‘cloud’ to the common infrastructure - can my common applications run on an infrastructure I don’t own? We’ll have to see, do check out the article.
Blade server firmware and vendor lists
I’ve updated the blade server vendor and blade server peripheral list pages. If you want to add your company to the list, it’s free, just email me.
I’ve also updated the firmware pages as I changed the layout of the site a bit, hope you like it.
IBM and Rackable available in the ICE Cube modular data center
ARMONK, NY and FREMONT, Calif. — July 28, 2008 — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Rackable Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: RACK) today entered into an agreement allowing Rackable Systems to offer IBM’s high-performance BladeCenter servers inside its ICE Cube™ modular data centers. The ICE Cube will be outfitted with IBM’s most rugged, high performance BladeCenter systems for harsh environments and demanding conditions.
As part of this agreement, IBM BladeCenter will be the only blade server platform available for custom ICE Cube implementations globally. IBM BladeCenter integrates servers, networks, storage, and business applications in a single, highly efficient system and is thus ideal for packing large amounts of computing power into portable data center environments.
The ICE Cube modular data center solution will be outfitted with IBM BladeCenter T or HT systems, which meet Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) Level 3/ European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) requirements, so are ideal for use in telecommunications environments and carrier facilities (1). The blades are designed to withstand extreme environments where modular data centers are often deployed, such as remote construction sites or oil fields.
Very cool, any further choice we can have in the modular data center field has to be a good thing.
That as a customer I can choose an ICE Cube data center with either IBM or Rackable systems brings extra choice and possibly open up new markets, new configurations to meet specific customer requirements.
We need to continue innovation of the blade platform for the different target markets/end users, each having their own ‘barrier to success’ or operational constraints. The more we evolve the platform, the more we can illustrate the platform as a business empowerment tool, an enabler to achieving your objectives; grid, virtualization or hpc.
Using IBM blade servers as an enabler
VIRTUAL WITHERNSEA CUTS SERVER ROOM POWER CONSUMPTION, COOLING, COSTS AND SPACE
July 2008, Hull-based secondary school and sixth-form college, Withernsea High School, has cut its 27 power hungry Dell servers to just three, consolidated two server rooms into one, switched off all costly and high energy server room air conditioning and reduced overall server room power consumption by 65-70 per cent.
Powering its complete school IT network – accessible by 1000 pupils, teachers and staff - Withernsea High School is now operating IBM’s eServer BladeCenter H Chassis with six blades which use significantly less power and require less cooling and physical space than the School’s previous solution.
VMware virtualisation software operating on four blades enables the School to boost its server count by 20 virtual servers.
Design, delivery, implementation and configuration of the complete server solution was undertaken through value-add reseller, Insight UK and value-add distributor, Interface Solutions International Ltd.
“Insight’s in-depth understanding of our requirements is reflected in its innovative BladeCenter solution which enables us to continue operating our entire school network but at lower cost, using significantly less power, with less cooling requirement and taking up less physical server room space,” says Rob Hardy, Network Manager, Withernsea High School. “Kit delivery, implementation and configuration of the BladeCenter solution by Interface was quick – just three days – ensuring the entire project was complete before pupils returned from a half-term holiday. Informal telephone support by both companies ensures the solution continues to operate without major problems.”
“Withernsea High School is a pioneer of the green IT agenda in education establishments,” says Paul Bolt, Insight UK. “The School has made a financial investment in a new innovative environmentally friendly server solution in order to benefit the School and reduce its effects on the environment now and in the future.”
“The implementation is based around commercially available, industry-leading, tried and tested products, which makes implementations quick, simple to operate and simple to manage,” says Rob Tomlin, Sales Director, Interface. “The benefits of the implementation for the School and the environment are clear.”
Consolidation or virtualization of the server infrastructure on to a unified platform can make sense not only from an energy standpoint, but also the hardware support contract costs, the ‘goldstock’ etc, the parts you need to pay for to be kept on site. At the same time, being able to reduce the number of components, the fans, the number of power supplies (not to mention the patching/switches) can illustrate blades as an energy efficient and effective infrastructure solution. An interesting article, and it’s great to see someone benefiting from blade technology, using the technology to deliver their objectives.
Westminster University and grid desktop
July 2008, an upgrade of University of Westminster’s previous 32 node High Performance Compute Cluster (HPCC) with a new 96 node HPCC, is providing a significant threefold increase in its contribution to the UK’s grid computing facility for researchers, the National Grid Service – NGS.
Established in 2004 and now with over 500 accredited users, the NGS is in use extensively across a wide range of research disciplines such as bioinformatics.
Amongst other projects, researchers from around the UK are accessing the NGS and drawing on its new additional power to more quickly understand how molecules, such as cancer or HIV interact with each other under certain stimuli. The faster researchers can do this, the more possibilities they can evaluate and the quicker potential life saving treatments can be discovered.
The new HPCC solution’s entire design, install and maintenance is provided by OCF, the UK’s premier High Performance Computing integrator.
University of Westminster, the first London based university to be an accredited Partner of the NGS, also provides one of only two fully approved web-based portal interfaces to the NGS. This makes the grid accessible to all accredited users anywhere in the UK and, as a commonly used and understood interface, makes the grid very accessible to non-computing HPC users, such as biologists.
Professor Stephen Winter, Dean of School, School of Informatics, The University of Westminster comments: “The previous 32-node cluster was considered a very useful contribution to the NGS and that has of course now been significantly enhanced by our 92-node upgrade.
Grid computing can bring a number of improvements both in terms of service delivery and performance. Simply creating a grid of desktops, and implementing your application in a grid solution might reduce the batch times, the time needed for your scientific research or trading algorithm from days to hours. This article from my former university discusses how they have leveraged grid or HPC technology to aid their research workload.
Implementing grid desktop can be a very efficient way of providing a grid infrastructure, key things to consider:
- A unified desktop grid in which all desktops on the network are ‘grid engines’, or a specific set of workstations or pcs which we use in a grid solution
- What management infrastructure do we need - a DataSynapse or Platform management server?
- Operation times - what hours can I safely use the desktop environment for my grid/hpc solution - 7pm to 7am?
- What layered components will each desktop need - do they need a database client loaded/configured
- The level of availability of each node - how many desktops do I expect in the grid?
- What management actions do we need to perform to have the desktops ready before or after grid - for example if we’re using the standard desktops in a grid application overnight, do we want them to reboot at 6am? Clear down or archive log files to a central location?
- What is the SLA of the desktop grid? The same as the server one?
- If we’re using shared desktop infrastructure what application(s) have priority - do the physics guys have priority over the biology guys?
Teradici and Dell partnership announced
BURNABY, British Columbia, Jul 22, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Teradici(R) Corporation, the industry leader in delivering a true PC experience over standard IP networks, today announced a new partnership with workstation industry leader Dell that will bring Teradici’s PC-over-IP(R) (PCoIP(R)) technology to select Dell Precision(TM) workstations.
The two companies collaborated to incorporate Teradici’s PCoIP technology into the new Dell Precision R5400/FX100 solution, an innovative rack workstation and remote access solution developed specifically for professionals in engineering, product design, animation and digital imaging. The Dell Precision platform with Teradici’s PCoIP technology will enable centrally managed access between the high-performance workstation in the datacenter and a stateless desktop device, while also providing secure access for remote workstation users.
“The Dell Precision R5400 rack workstation together with the FX100 addresses a critical need for remote access without sacrificing application performance,” said Antonio Julio, director, Dell Product Group. “Our performance tuned, ISV-certified system with breakthrough PC-over-IP technology from Teradici delivers the kind of high resolution, high frame rate performance our customers demand.”
Very cool, the Teradici PC over IP solution is very impressive, it will be interesting to see what solutions are developed from this partnership. Could we see innovation in the trader workstation/blade workstation arena?
Fujitsu’s PRIMERGY TX300 S4 rocks
SUNNYVALE, CA, Jul 22, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation today announced that as of the date of this release, the PRIMERGY(R) TX300 S4 server has delivered the best price/performance in a benchmark developed by TPC. The PRIMERGY TX300 S4 server has also achieved top performance for a dual-processor system in the same test. Complete results are available at http://www.tpc.org/tpce/tpce_price_perf_results.asp. The full disclosure report is available at http://www.tpc.org/results/FDR/tpce/fujitsu-siemens.TX300S4.080530.02.fdr.pdf.
Very cool, do check out the reports, I’m off to check them out.
The performance you achieve from your server will be dependent on optimizing the system configuration and the application code for the platform, often things such as the driver pack, the relevant hot fixes and application calls can make the difference.
Hello everyone ! Can anyone tell me what is the estimated value of this green datacenter complex ? And when ...
Yes, outsourcing can bring challenges to us, especially for the owners. Even before there are lots of challenges in outsourcing. 
Internet protection is a must for business security and data integrity. Electronic Banking 
We are in the process of doing much the same; decommissioning our relatively old installations at Docklands in favour of ...
I always use `hponcfg -g` from the commandline of the Linux server. 
Martin, It's great to see that you have picked up this article, many articles report large numbers and tempting savings ...
If you have problems, email me and I'll send you a few config scripts. 
To answer your question:
The six data centre buildings will be powered from multiple redundant sources, principally from the adjacent 38MW ...
Given the depth of some of the Piles Driven into the ground for such buildings or companies with large car ...