NBIC users test HPC Cloud

14 Jun 2010

Following a successful pilot end of 2009, the beta-test phase of the HPC Cloud developed by SARA as part of a BiG Grid project is about to kick off. A call to recruit beta-testers got the project in the international limelight as it was picked up by 'HPC in the Cloud', an online newsletter that claims to have 30,000 readers. International groups immediately contacted SARA to require access to the HPC Cloud, but unfortunately for them, the new service is presently only available for Dutch users.

Ideal environment
Selection of the 10 projects for the beta-phase is ongoing, but there will be a relatively high number of NBIC users Floris Sluiter of SARA expects. Together with colleague Tom Visser, he is responsible for the development of the HPC Cloud. The HPC Cloud project is funded and facilitated by BiG Grid – a collaboration between NCF, Nikhef and NBIC that provides access to grid infrastructure for the Dutch science and R&D communities. Floris: "Especially in bioinformatics, researchers work with a lot of different applications and tools. Because it is such dynamic field, these applications and tools quickly change as well. To this group of users, our HPC Cloud offers the ideal environment."

20-40 copies
In short, commercial cloud computing is about 'renting' unused external server capacity to run large jobs or to store data. Several commercial parties, such as Amazon, offer this type of cloud services. The development of virtualisation technology was the driver for SARA to develop a dedicated HPC (high performance computing) cloud system. "In essence, virtualisation technology offers you the possibility to 'copy' your own working environment to create a scale up in computing power", explains Floris. "You get your own 'Virtual Private HPC Cluster' based on the software environment you are used to. Your software can remain the same, you can run multiple copies and distribute the workload. For example, with the SARA HPC Cloud, you can clone your own laptop 20 to 40 times. If your software can run in parallel, for example with an MPI library, or if the workload consists of many similar tasks, it will not be difficult to run your software in the HPC Cloud on your Virtual Private HPC Cluster. On the traditional HPC systems, there is usually an incompatibility with the existing work environment of the user, making it necessary to adapt the application code. The ability to tailor the environment to the application code will greatly improve and shorten the time it takes to produce results."

Faster and cheaper
Compared to the commercially available clouds, the HPC Cloud offers several important advantages. Floris: "We can guarantee the network speed, which is essential to the predictability of HPC jobs. And our networks are much faster than the commercial ones. Safety is well organised, you know your data are stored at a secure site in the Netherlands. Furthermore, our cloud is a dedicated HPC system, compared to the commercial parties where the cloud service is just a by-product. Last but not least, our services are a lot cheaper."
For more information: https://grid.sara.nl/wiki/index.php/Using_the_HPC_Cloud/betaevaluation

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