HP, Intel and Yahoo! Create Global Cloud Computing
Posted on July 29, 2008
Filed Under 1
HP, Intel and Yahoo! Create Global Cloud Computing Research Test Bed.
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology lead the way
as global centers of excellence
PALO ALTO, SANTA CLARA and SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 29, 2008 – HP, Intel
Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today announced the creation of a
global, multi-data center, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud
computing research and education. 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 center 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.
HP, Intel and Yahoo! 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 test bed will initially consist of six “centers 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.
“The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed furthers our commitment to the
global, collaborative research community that is advancing the new sciences of the
Internet,” said Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo! Research. “With this test bed,
not only can researchers test applications at Internet scale, they will also have access
to the underlying computing systems to advance understanding of how systems
software and hardware function in a cloud environment.”
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. HP Labs recently sharpened its focus to help HP and its customers
capitalize on the industry’s shift toward cloud computing, a driving force behind HP’s
vision of Everything as a Service. With Everything as a Service, devices and services
will interact seamlessly through the cloud, and businesses and individuals will use
services that anticipate their needs based on location, preferences, calendar and
communities.
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“To realize the full potential of cloud computing, the technology industry must think
about the cloud as a platform for creating new services and experiences. This
requires an entirely new approach to the way we design, deploy and manage cloud
infrastructure and services,” said Prith Banerjee, senior vice president of Research at
HP and director of HP Labs. “The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed
lets us tap the brightest minds in the industry, academia and government to drive
innovation in this area.”
Intel is a leading provider of platform technologies, including processors, chipsets,
networking and SSD (solid state drives), for cloud computing data centers. Current
platform features such as Data Center Management Interface (DCMI), Node Manager
(NM) and virtualization have been designed to improve the manageability and energy
efficiency of data centers. This open, collaborative research effort will give
researchers full access to the system’s hardware for further innovation of existing and
future platform features.
“We are pleased to engage with the academic research community – open
collaboration with the academia is in our DNA at Intel Research,” said Andrew A.
Chien, vice president and director of Intel Research. “Creating large-scale test beds
is important because they lower barriers to innovation and provide the opportunity to
experiment and learn at scale. Intel’s support of Tashi, an open source cluster
management system for cloud computing, and this HP, Intel, Yahoo! Cloud
Computing Test Bed are a natural extension of our ongoing, mutually beneficial
partnerships with the research community, such as the Universal Parallel Computing
Research Centers.”
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.”
Partnership builds on initiatives in cloud computing
The Cloud Computing Test Bed is the next step in expanding each company’s
ongoing initiatives in cloud computing. In November 2007, Yahoo! announced the
deployment of a supercomputing-class data center, called M45, for cloud computing
research; Carnegie Mellon University was the first institution to take advantage of this
supercomputer. Yahoo! also announced this year an agreement with Computational
Research Laboratories (CRL) to jointly support cloud computing research and make
one of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world available to academic institutions in
India. Earlier this year, Yahoo! hosted the first-ever Hadoop Summit and Data-
Intensive Computing Symposium. Co-sponsored with the Computing Community
Consortium (CCC), these meetings brought together leading experts from industry,
academia and government to discuss the future directions of Hadoop and data-
intensive computing.
In 2008, HP announced the formation of its Scalable Computing & Infrastructure
Organization (SCI), which includes a dedicated set of resources that provide
expertise and spearhead development efforts to build scalable solutions designed for
high-performance and cloud computing customers. The company introduced scalable
computing offerings including the Intel Xeon-based HP ProLiant BL2×220c G5, the
world’s first server blade to combine two independent servers in a single blade, and
the HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System (ExDS9100), a highly
scalable storage system designed to simplify the management of multiple
petabytes.
(1)
HP also introduced the HP POD (Performance-Optimized Datacenter),
an open architecture, compact, shipped-to-order alternative for deploying IT
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resources.
Organizations interested in learning more about research in cloud computing and
other key industry issues are invited to contact HP, Intel or Yahoo! at
http://www.hpl.hp.com/, www.intel.com/research and
http://research.yahoo.com/cloud.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies,
products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional
information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet
destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users,
advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built
on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit
pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.
About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from
individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing,
personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s
largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $110.4 billion for the four fiscal quarters
ended April 30, 2008. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at
http://www.hp.com/.
(1)
1 petabyte equals 1,000 terabytes or 1,000
5
bytes.
Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties
materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are
statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and
objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share
relating to products and services; anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any
statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the execution and
performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the achievement of expected results; and other risks that
are described in HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2008 and HP’s other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October
31, 2007. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
This news release also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions concerning Yahoo!’s
expected performance (including without limitation the plans for the Global Cloud Computing Research Test Bed and the statements
from management in this news release), as well as Yahoo!’s strategic and operational plans. Actual results may differ materially from
the results predicted. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that the expected or planned activities
of the collaboration described might be delayed, might not ultimately be implemented, or if implemented might not be successful; and
that the anticipated benefits to Yahoo!, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the collaboration’s other
members might not be realized; the potential for litigation costs and adverse results in litigation, including intellectual property
infringement claims; the collaboration might fail to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands diligently; Yahoo! depends
and the collaboration might depend on key personnel; the collaboration might depend on third parties for technology and funding;
general adverse economic conditions and changes in economic conditions might impede the collaboration’s efforts; potential
continuing uncertainty arising in connection with Microsoft’s various proposals to acquire all or a part of Yahoo!; the possibility that
Microsoft or another person may in the future make other proposals, or take other actions which may create uncertainty for Yahoo’s
employees, publishers, advertisers, and other business partners, which might affect the collaboration; and the possibility of significant
costs of defense, indemnification, and liability resulting from stockholder litigation against Yahoo and its directors and officers relating
to such proposals might affect Yahoo’s funding of the collaboration. Yahoo! does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this
information to reflect future events or circumstances. More information about potential factors that could affect Yahoo!’s business and
financial results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations” in Yahoo!’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as amended, and the
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, which are on file with the SEC and available at the SEC’s
website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in those sections in Yahoo!’s Quarte
News release
Editorial contacts:
Christina Schneider, HP
+1 650 857 8222
christina.schneider@hp.com
Megan Langer, Intel
+1 503 712 4305
megan.e.langer@intel.com
Denis Roy, Yahoo!
+1 408 349 2570
denisroy@yahoo-inc.com
HP Media Hotline
+1 866 266 7272
pr@hp.com
www.hp.com/go/newsroom
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304
www.hp.com - mexin
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