IBM, Academia Team Up on Cloud Computing Research

IBM, Georgia Tech, and Ohio State to develop new autonomic technology


March 26, 2008
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/parallel/ibm-academia-team-up-on-cloud-computing/206905924


IBM will be collaborating with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Ohio State University to develop new autonomic technology for cloud computing. The collaborative Critical Enterprise Cloud Computing Services (CECCS) research project will focus on self-managing features for virtualized data centers in a cloud computing environment.

Virtualized data centers give organizations the ability to do more with fewer resources by optimizing the use of software, computing hardware and storage, and network infrastructure by sharing not only across departments but also across different physical locations. Cloud computing lets data centers operate more like the Internet by enabling computing across a distributed, globally accessible fabric of resources, rather than simply depending upon local machines or remote server farms. The success of cloud computing and a virtualized data center depends on the ability to continue the development of new management technology based upon autonomic, or self-managing, capabilities that can reduce the complexity and resources to manage the underlying distributed computing resources.

The CECCS project focuses on software application services that are critical to the ability of a business to function, such as operational information systems run by large airlines. It will look at how job and process activities and maintenance schedules can be undertaken without seriously jeopardizing critical data center operations. Similarly, the project intends to use self-managing software to address a general problem of balancing technology system availability versus performance.

The project will foster interaction and exchange of innovative ideas among professors at Georgia Tech and Ohio State and IBM Watson and Austin Research Labs and Raleigh development teams. Through the use of IBM Shared University Research and IBM Academic Initiative programs, IBM is awarding the universities with IBM BladeCenter H chassis running HS21 servers, IBM System Storage DS3400, networking equipment and software that includes IBM Tivoli, WebSphere and Information Management. Together with virtualization support, these will form the necessary foundation for building the CECCS facility.

"For future virtualized and service-oriented systems within a cloud environment, we contend that without the coordinated use of hardware, operating systems, middleware and applications, it will simply not be possible to meet the demands of tomorrow's critical applications and systems that support them," said Karsten Schwan, CERCS Director at The Georgia Institute of Technology. "The CECCS facility will be a test-bed for modern management tools, such as those provided by IBM Tivoli, and a visible artifact for interactions with industry technology users and developers in these regions and around the world."

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