[Beowulf] Station wagon full of tapes

[Mike Davis]

Jeff Layton wrote:
>
> I haven't seen the cloud ready yet for anything other than embarrassingly
> parallel codes (i.e. since node, small IO requirements). Has anyone seen
> differently? (as an example of what might work, CloudBurst seems to be
> gaining some traction - doing sequencing in the cloud. The only problem
> is that sequencing can generate a great deal of data pretty rapidly).
>
> Jeff
>
After having actually dealt with a station wagon (actually a van) full 
of 9 tracks (400-9 tracks, 100-3590s), I thought that I would chime in 
and second some of the responses.

Until there is a general access to Lambda speed connections, the 
applicability of cloud computing for jobs requiring intercommunication 
will be limited. Specific examples of the limitations would include MD 
codes and Quantum codes.  There are issues, even with sequencing data. 
Our sequencers are generating 90 GB every three days. Moving that 
information to a cloud for analysis would be painful.

-- 
Mike Davis			Technical Director
(804) 828-3885			Center for High Performance Computing
jmdavis1 at vcu.edu		Virginia Commonwealth University

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."  George S. Patton