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UK Universities Launch Cloud Supercomputer For Hire

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-it-to-the-coud dept.

judgecorp writes "Cambridge University and Imperial College London have combined forces to make a cloud-based supercomputer service. Supercomputers have traditionally not been shared this way, but CORE — the biggest Intel-based HPC system in the UK, and in the top 100 supercomputers in the world — will be available on a pay-per-use basis by industry, small businesses and other academic bodies."

9 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Cost? by AaxelB · · Score: 2

    So... how much are they charging?

  2. Business oppertunity by kurt555gs · · Score: 2

    I wonder if this thing will make Bitcoins at a greater rate than they charge? Capitalism in it's purist form!
     

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    * Carthago Delenda Est *
    1. Re:Business oppertunity by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No. If it does, the price of bit coins will fall to match. Actually, from historical performance of the bit coin market, the price of bit coins would probably fall to BELOW what it costs to make them. Capitalism in it's purest form.

  3. Re:Good by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 2

    Botnets don't require you pay anything if you are the owner. This is certainly more expensive than renting botnet time.

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    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
  4. How is this by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this any different from renting time on other supercomputer systems? Is it special because they added the word cloud to the mix? I mean seriously why are we using this stupid marketing term in any discussion about computers these days. I don't know how many times my clients ask me about the 'cloud' and I have to explain that all that means is you're storing your data or using the computing power of a remote server. It's a misleading and uninformative term like most marketing lingo. I think most people are starting to think we have found some new way to store data in actual clouds.

    1. Re:How is this by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      It is marketing lingo. The only important factor I can see distinguishing the cloud is that it abstracts away the physical infrastructure a bit more. Your code still has to execute on a physical processor somewhere, but as a customer you don't need to worry about exactly where this might be. It's much more dynamic, allowing the cloud operator to perform better optimisation and load-balancing. They might decide to relocate a bunch of their client's data from one continent to another, and the client wouldn't notice. On the downside of this, regulatory compliance can be a nightmare, and the constant state of flux of the physical side can make things behave erratically. And if your resource needs are constant, you probably get screwed on price. It can be good though for bursty loads though - if you're running an internet flourist, it must be nice to be able to contact the cloud operator when february nears and be able to just rent a few more servers for a week.

    2. Re:How is this by XSpud · · Score: 2

      ... if you're running an internet flourist, it must be nice to be able to contact the cloud operator when february nears and be able to just rent a few more servers for a week.

      Pancake day must be quite an event in your part of the world - over here most people get by with what they already have in the cupboard.

  5. Re:Good by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 2

    Botnets are for rent as well. It's only natural that you can also legally rent computational power.

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    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
  6. Similar work exists by madboson · · Score: 2

    This sounds just like the former teragrid and open science grid projects. Both of which saw reasonable useage from the scientific community. These things worked well for two reasons, one it is easy to get time on them for small research groups. Second, they allowed cluster owners to offer up idle cpu time to the project. A net win for every one.

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    Mo00o