Today everybody thinks about distributed computing, virtualization and data center optimization. So, within the next few blog entries I am going to talk about distributed computing.
Distributed Computing and its Market
In history, distributed computing was often used in Education and Research. In the last year, the trend has tremendously changed. Finance and Insurance Companies are more and more moving away from big iron systems into grid based solutions and distributed computing. It is not only much cheaper, but also much more efficient. Typical applications for grid computing are, Risk Analysis, Instant Credit Calculations, 3D Calculations and any Simulations like Weather, Earth Quake, Semiconductor, etc.. In fact distributed computing is great for every application that can run multiple processes in parallel on different systems.
What do I need for Distributed Computing
Basically distributed computing is very simple and you just need a few tools and systems to run your own Grid / Cluster / HPC. Bellow is a short overview on what you need to go Distributed:
- 2 + N Server Nodes with same software stack
- Centralized Storage that can be accessed from any System Node
- A Scheduling Software that manages the processes which are distributed to the System Nodes
- A Monitoring Tool that give you some insights on how efficient your System Nodes are being used
- A Network for the efficient communication between the System Nodes, preferably > 1Gb Ethernet. Optimal would be Infiniband!
In the next few blogs entries, I am going to talk about:
- Mastering the Grid
- Storage in the Grid
- Monitoring the Grid
- Into the Cloud!
So, Have fun!