3.2. Hardware and infrastructure

Last modified by Wai-Tim Ng on 2019/11/04 08:52

Index

  • Cloud computing
  • Cloud storage
  • Computer cluster
  • Supercomputer
  • Vienna Scientific Cluster
Cloud computing enables access to shared pools of configurable system resources and higher-level services that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort, often over the Internet. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale, similar to a public utility.
Cloud storage is a model of data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, the physical storage spans multiple servers (and often locations), and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.
A computer cluster (i.e. VSC-1/2/3) is a set of loosely or tightly connected computers that work together so that, in many respects, they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software. The components of a cluster are usually connected to each other through fast local area networks, with each node running its own instance of an operating system. In most circumstances, all nodes use the same hardware and the same operating system.
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance compared to a general-purpose computer. Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). Supercomputers play an important role in the field of computational science and are used for a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, and molecular modeling.
The Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) is a collaboration of several Austrian universities that provides supercomputer resources and corresponding services to their users. EODC offers acces to VSC-3 and is operated since 2014. It is a throughput-oriented general-purpose Linux cluster with approximately 2,000 compute nodes and a few special-purpose nodes such as GPUs. It is renowned for its innovative oil cooling and unparalleled energy efficiency. The new VSC-4, est. 2019, is the most powerful computer ever operated in Austria and is four times more powerful than its predecessor VSC-3.