In the world of myths, nothing seems to stick like the idea of the homogeneous data center. Vendors dream of rooms full of their stuff and nothing but their stuff.
Mixed bags are the reality in the datacenter. With that in mind, Penguin Computing just announced that their Scyld ClusterWare will support for SUSE Linux from Novell. Through a new ‘hybrid’ provisioning method, the company’s cluster management suite also supports HPC clusters that run a mix of heterogeneous Linux operating systems.
With the introduction of Scyld Hybrid , we are accommodating the increasing demand for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for HPC. Scyld’s Hybrid functionality enables Scyld users to choose the best operating system platform for their applications and benefit from Scyld’s easy-to-use and fully integrated software stack,” said Tom Coull, Vice President and General Manager of Software and Services at Penguin Computing.
I remember watching an internal pitch for N1 back at Sun some years ago. It was a grand vision of software that would manage every aspect of the datacenter. And when I raised my hand and asked if it worked with heterogeneous systems, the room went silent. It’s a story without a happy ending, but companies like Penguin are the ones still around to learn the lesson.
