Intel's Cluster Ready certification

Not to be outdone in the “we’re making clusters easier to build” department, Intel has announced its own cluster deployment initiative. The Intel approach appears less end-user centric than Cluster Resources’ recently announced Escalante product.

Intel Cluster Ready is a program and technology that helps simplify the deployment, usage and management of clustered computer systems by providing a standardized and replicable way to build clusters and run “off-the-shelf” high-performance applications. The program includes a specification that sets minimum standards for software and hardware components. This enables software developers to validate just one time across many hardware platforms, speeding development and time-to-market readiness.

Intel Cluster Ready also includes a software registration process for compatible HPC applications and a hardware certification process that utilizes the Intel® Cluster Checker. This tool checks the cluster hardware and software components to ensure they correctly interoperate. Intel Cluster Checker also includes fault isolation, helping to improve early detection of cluster problems that can decrease productivity and increase support costs.

And there’s some stuff about cables that I’m frankly too tired to study. I mean, they’re cables (am I right?…anyone?…). Ok, I can sense you care. Here’s a snippet

Intel Connects Cables enable Infiniband and 10 GbE customers to achieve data rates up to 20 Gbps and extend the reach between servers up to 100M. Enterprises can now design clusters based on their own unique business requirements, without being inhibited by cable length.

Apparently Intel has a basket of hardware vendors that care, too. So you have company

Several companies will demonstrate Intel Connects Cables at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in Dresden, including Bull, Ciara, Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Mellanox, Microsoft, QLogic, SGI, Sun, Supermicro, Tektronix, Tyan and Voltaire.

Who’s missing from that list? Cray and Linux Networx among the Tier 1’s, and I don’t see Penguin, Rackable, or Appro in there anywhere either.

And Platform is officially on board

Platform Open Cluster Stack (OCS) is the first commercial software system used to create certified Intel® Cluster Ready systems that enable the consistent delivery of scale-out application clusters.