Global cloud computing research test bed initiative
ConvergenceAsia staff
01/08/2008

HP, Intel and Yahoo! have announced the creation of a global, multi-data centre, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing research and education.

They have partnered with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany to form the research initiative. The partnership with Illinois also includes the National Science Foundation.

The goal of the initiative is to promote open collaboration among industry, academia and governments by removing the financial and logistical barriers to research in data-intensive, Internet-scale computing.

The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed will provide a globally distributed, Internet-scale testing environment designed to encourage research on the software, data centre management and hardware issues associated with cloud computing at a larger scale than ever before. The initiative will also support research of cloud applications and services.

The test bed will initially consist of six “centres of excellence” at IDA facilities, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Steinbuch Centre for Computing of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, HP Labs, Intel Research and Yahoo!.

Each location will host a cloud computing infrastructure, largely based on HP hardware and Intel processors, and will have 1,000 to 4,000 processor cores capable of supporting the data-intensive research associated with cloud computing. The test bed locations are expected to be fully operational and made accessible to researchers worldwide through a selection process later this year.

The test bed will leverage Yahoo!’s technical leadership in open source projects by running Apache Hadoop – an open source, distributed computing project of the Apache Software Foundation – and other open source, distributed computing software such as Pig, the parallel programming language developed by Yahoo! Research.

Researchers at HP Labs, the central research arm of HP, will use the test bed to conduct advanced research in the areas of intelligent infrastructure and dynamic cloud services.

Intel is the leading provider of platform technologies, including processors, chipsets, networking and SSD (solid state drives), for cloud computing data centres.

IDA will facilitate research in the test bed by providing its users with the computing resources required to develop cloud computing software and applications. IDA will also leverage the test bed and its industry partnerships to train local students and professionals on the technologies and programs associated with cloud computing.

“With the ready and available Internet-scale resources in Singapore to support cloud computer research and development work, we can collaborate with like-minded partners to advance the field,” said Khoong Hock Yun, assistant chief executive of the Infrastructure Development Group at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

“Cloud computing is considered by many to be the next paradigm shift in computer technology, and this may be the next ‘platform’ for innovative ecosystems. Partnerships like this will allow Singapore to leverage this new paradigm for greater economic and social growth.”

Organisations interested in learning more about research in cloud computing and other key industry issues are invited to contact HP, Intel or Yahoo! at www.hpl.hp.com/, www.intel.com/research and research.yahoo.com/cloud. 

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