An Even Deeper Shade of Blue

06/27/2003

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06/27/03--IBM has started up of its first facility designed to deliver supercomputing power to customers over the Internet, helping to free them from the fixed costs and management responsibility of owning a supercomputer. IBM's deep computing on demand will offer scalable, highly secure systems that customers can access via a VPN connection over the Internet. Additional facilities are planned nationally and internationally, the company says.

IBM claims that deep computing on demand customers can help avoid large IT capital outlays and long term depreciation or lease schedules, an especially important issue for companies with short term projects. It can also bring to bear, on a temporary basis, massive amounts of compute power that could be otherwise unaffordable and which helps provide strategic insight, and help lower overall operating costs.

The new deep computing on demand facility is located in a highly secure section of IBM's Poughkeepsie, New York plant, the firm says. Initially, the system consists of a cluster of IBM eServer xSeries Intel-based Linux systems with related disk storage, and is planned to include pSeries UNIX servers. The deep computing on demand facility is also planned to incorporate a variety of blade technologies and AMD technologies over time.

One of the first expected to use deep computing on demand is GX Technology Corporation, which produces high resolution subsurface images from large volumes of seismic data. These subsurface images provide vital information to petroleum exploration companies in their search for new oil and natural gas deposits. The service is expected to help enable the Houston-based company to expand the scope and the number of projects it can effectively handle around the world, according to company officials.

"With dry hole costs in the range of $5 million to $60 million each, companies exploring for oil and gas reserves use our high resolution subsurface images to significantly reduce their drilling risk. Shortening project cycle times allows our clients to gain a significant additional benefit from our services," said GX Technology president and CEO Mick Lambert. "IBM's deep computing on demand gives us the power to dramatically reduce project cycle times and increase our project capacity, while reducing infrastructure and operating costs."

IBM expects the service to find favor with a broad spectrum of companies that have peaks and valleys in their need for supercomputing power. These can include Hollywood studios that use supercomputing power to create animated movies as well as life sciences companies for genomic and drug discovery research. Financial services organizations, government agencies and national research laboratories are also likely customers.

"The on demand computing model helps allow customers to avoid technological risk as well as the financial risk associated with ownership," said IBM Deep Computing vice president David Turek. "Deep computing on demand is designed to fulfill those two goals, freeing customers to focus on growing their business."