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It's Raining Cloud Computing!
Techtree News Staff, Oct 10, 2007 1307 hrs ISTThey envisage a scenario, wherein individual institutes setting up their own small data centers will be passe.
Google and IBM have come together to popularize large scale (read: Internet scale) distributed computing -- also called 'cloud computing' -- in educational institutions.
'Cloud computing', which is essentially accessing clusters (clouds) of parallel running super computers (read: hyper fast processing power), is believed to eventually become as common -- as say -- accessing a mass utility like electricity. Experts say 'cloud computing holds the future'.
They envisage a scenario, wherein individual institutes setting up their own small data centers will be passe -- especially when users have the option to share one massive 'cloud computing' resource.
However, which calls for an evolving skill set to tackle the emerging problems that computer science students and researchers face today. Today, we've burgeoning data that needs processing. Hence, diligently programming just one machine isn't enough; we need to be able to program thousands of machines to make them handle the enormous workload. Then again, practical implementation of the eminently desirable 'cloud computing' is bound to be fraught with problems.
Samuel J Palmisano, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of IBM, says 'cloud computing' is about training 'tomorrow's programmers' to write software that can support a 'tidal wave' of global Web growth, and trillions of secure transactions every day.
Coming back to the Google-IBM pact, the pact requires that the two companies jointly provide hardware, software, and services to educational institutions, while also consciously reducing the overall cost of the distributed computing research.
The first university that has opened up to this symbiosis is the University of Washington, which, interestingly, is located in the neighborhood of Google's arch competitor, Microsoft. Other universities that have enlisted for the program include: Carnegie-Mellon University, MIT, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Maryland.
Under the initiative, there would be an initial offering of 400 computers, to be scaled up to 4,000. All servers would be Linux-based, and running open source software. The servers will be hosted at data centers located within Google, IBM, and the University of Washington premises. And, the investment is likely to run into figures like $20 million to $25 million.
Initially, cluster management, monitoring, and resource provisioning will be IBM's responsibility. Google meanwhile, will provide complementary expertise in Web computing and massively scaled clusters.
'Cloud computing', which is essentially accessing clusters (clouds) of parallel running super computers (read: hyper fast processing power), is believed to eventually become as common -- as say -- accessing a mass utility like electricity. Experts say 'cloud computing holds the future'.
They envisage a scenario, wherein individual institutes setting up their own small data centers will be passe -- especially when users have the option to share one massive 'cloud computing' resource.
However, which calls for an evolving skill set to tackle the emerging problems that computer science students and researchers face today. Today, we've burgeoning data that needs processing. Hence, diligently programming just one machine isn't enough; we need to be able to program thousands of machines to make them handle the enormous workload. Then again, practical implementation of the eminently desirable 'cloud computing' is bound to be fraught with problems.
Samuel J Palmisano, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of IBM, says 'cloud computing' is about training 'tomorrow's programmers' to write software that can support a 'tidal wave' of global Web growth, and trillions of secure transactions every day.
Coming back to the Google-IBM pact, the pact requires that the two companies jointly provide hardware, software, and services to educational institutions, while also consciously reducing the overall cost of the distributed computing research.
The first university that has opened up to this symbiosis is the University of Washington, which, interestingly, is located in the neighborhood of Google's arch competitor, Microsoft. Other universities that have enlisted for the program include: Carnegie-Mellon University, MIT, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Maryland.
Under the initiative, there would be an initial offering of 400 computers, to be scaled up to 4,000. All servers would be Linux-based, and running open source software. The servers will be hosted at data centers located within Google, IBM, and the University of Washington premises. And, the investment is likely to run into figures like $20 million to $25 million.
Initially, cluster management, monitoring, and resource provisioning will be IBM's responsibility. Google meanwhile, will provide complementary expertise in Web computing and massively scaled clusters.
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(5) Comments
deca strodahan
,Canada, on Jan 19, 2010 03:55 PM
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Suresh Kumar
,Chennai, on Jun 13, 2009 03:00 PM
Param
,Chennai, on Oct 12, 2007 09:54 AM
Steve Lesko
,NPB Ca, on Oct 10, 2007 10:08 PM
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