computing processes are prioritised and queues of jobs wait
for CPU time. The software lines up the jobs to go one-byone and the programme controlling this process is known
as a scheduler.
Some of the programmes available in IBM’s Platform Computing Software range include:
LSF – Load Sharing Facility: a powerful workload
management platform for demanding, distributed HPC
environments.
Cluster Manager Advanced: tools for the self-service
creation and management of flexible clusters.
Real-Time Monitor – real-time monitoring capability that
makes it possible for users to view operations data in
motion.
Platform HPC – a complete set of technical and high performance computing (HPC) management capabilities in a
single product.
Platform Symphony - a fast, service-oriented middleware
solution for high-performance computing (HPC).
Map Reduce – a programming paradigm that allows for
massive scalability across hundreds or thousands of servers in a Hadoop cluster.
insurance, retail, scientific research, weather forecasting,
etc.
IBM also prides itself on reportedly having the best total
cost of ownership (TCO) and competing well on price due
to increased competition. It seems as though the days of
the company charging what it wants are over.
The concepts involved in High Performance Computing are
certainly interesting. IBM’s intelligent software enables policy-driven scheduling able to deal with the complexities of
different jobs. The software lines up the correct application
for the machine and reserves machines for certain users/
jobs, etc. An incredible 1.5 million jobs in the system can be
handled this way and IBM’s systems enable faster time to
results and/or fewer resources used.
Things are also simplified through an intuitive operational
dashboard which is able to monitor and report on resource
consumption, analyse job pending reasons, execute single
job drill-down, set policies and manage access to shared
resources, compute time to complete, etc.
It’s a fascinating insight into a world not always on display in
everyday organisations. IBM it seems, has this sector covered and the future will no doubt bring about more intriguing
possibilities in the high-performance computing realm.
Naturally integration has been optimised for IBM hardware,
but the software products are also used by most major
hardware vendors such as HP, Dell, Sun, etc, and these
software solutions are available for both NextScale and
System x Servers.
IBM has recognised that some industries are particularly
suited for the features enabled by the High Performance
Software such as electronics, engineering (eg. car-crash
simulation), petroleum, universities (eg. physics modelling),
www.ibm.com
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