Special Features:
GRID-BASED SUPERCOMPUTING:
INTERVIEW WITH IBM'S DAVID JURSIK
By Alan Beck, Editor-in-Chief
IBM recently introduced a Grid-based Supercomputing On Demand service where
customers have the option to either buy POWER or Intel® processor-based
supercomputer clusters or access these systems on demand, paying for
processing power based on the required capacity and duration of use. To learn
more, GRIDtoday interviewed David Jursik, IBM's VP of Linux Clusters.
GRIDtoday: What specific factors led to IBM's introduction of
Supercomputing on demand?
JURSIK: Frequent customer requests for short term capacity to satisfy their
needs to:
- Complete functional application testing and migration
- Perform application and system stress tests
- Validate research findings and a variety of other fixed duration projects
that all exhibited the requirement for large capacity supercomputing cycles,
in a controlled, robust, data center environment, utilizing the latest
technology with strong systems management disciplines, led IBM to realize the
need for this type of service.
GRIDtoday: How does this initiative differ from prior Grid computing
services offered by IBM?
JURSIK: IBM sees the usage and adoption of Grid computing technologies
spreading rapidly and we expect that the variations of usages will be many
over time. For example, we are working with one client to link their internal
Grid to additional capacity from IBM which would work in concert with the
client's internal Grid to handle requirements for peak capacity or for
business critical tasks that require accelerated turn-around times.
GRIDtoday: Whom did you foresee as the typical Supercomputing on demand
customers?
JURSIK: IBM believes that Petroleum clients performing seismic analysis,
Life Sciences companies performing genomic studies and movie studios creating
animation sequences are all examples of businesses with short term capacity
requirements that have a well defined project length and a finite need for a
specific amount of capacity.
GRIDtoday: How does IBM pricing compare with similar services offered by
Gateway and Sun?
JURSIK: Pricing will differ from customer to customer based on various
variables. We can't comment on Gateway or Sun's offerings.
GRIDtoday: How are you marketing Supercomputing on demand to potential end-
users? How are such potential customers identified?
JURSIK: IBM is the world's leading provider of high performance computing
solutions as demonstrated by our position on the TOP 500 supercomputing list.
Our experiences in the technical computing market over the past 10-15 years
has allowed us to better understand its requirements and in doing so, we have
worked with many clients in the high potential application areas mentioned
previously that have asked for these solutions. In short, our focus on
solutions, across our services, software and hardware brands has led to a
unique working relationship and understanding of the time dependent needs of
many researchers and other supercomputing users and we have structured this
offering to specifically meet those needs.
GRIDtoday: In Grid computation, there is often a significant difference
between pure processing costs and expenses incurred in setting up a problem or
function for processing. How will IBM tackle this dichotomy?
JURSIK: IBM is well positioned to provided consultative services to our
customers in the definition of problem statements, the evaluation of
alternatives, uses of appropriate tools and preparation for the execution of
complex tasks. Our investments in the Grid Computing initiatives over the
past several years has allowed IBM to apply the intellectual capital in
helping our customers with the less resource intensive phases of their
project. Complementing those skills, we will have large computational capacity
available at the time required, for the in amount dictated by the problem
definition and for the duration required to solve the problem. By combining
both these consultative skills and the short term computational capability, we
believe we are uniquely prepared to address these needs.
GRIDtoday: What were the most significant technical challenges involved in
rolling out Supercomputing on Demand? How long was the development
process?
JURSIK: It turns out that for the class of customers and applications we
are targeting to serve in the initial stages of our roll-out the technology we
have developed for our clustering business over many years is well suited to
accommodate the needs of the customers we have engaged.
This includes management of large numbers of nodes, scheduling and workload
balancing technology, monitoring capability, security, system scalability and
so on. Thus, our ability to move quickly in this arena has been enhanced by
virtue of the availability of technology many of our customers make use of
today.
There are, of course, other technical challenges that will arise as we
broaden the community of customers we serve and experience more diversity in
the nature of the applications targeted. We expect that some of these issues
will revolve around resource balancing that we expect to target with our Grid
technologies which we further expect will enable us to tie together
distributed facilities to amplify the amount and type of technology eligible
to be deployed against customer demands.
GRIDtoday: How will the market niche for Grid computing evolve over the
next year? The next decade? What will IBM's role be in this process?
JURSIK: IBM is working to drive the movement of Grid from its roots in
academia and research into mainstream commercial computing. At this time Grid
technologies are being adopted by technical "achievers" in early adopter
segments such as financial services, automotive, petroleum, and life sciences.
Our initial proof-of-value projects in these segments are demonstrating
significant business value. These results will most certainly serve to
accelerate the penetration in these segments.
Utilizing the introduction of Globus Toolkit 3.0 and the first versions of
the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) standard in 2003, we are also now
working with key industry ISVs to "Grid enable" 3rd party applications. This
will deliver the benefits of Grid, such as better access to data and increased
productivity, to a much wider set of users.
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