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Cineca, Italy's Largest Computing Center, Expands Research and Accelerates Projects With Cisco and IBM High-Performance Computing
Cisco High-Performance Computing InfiniBand and Ethernet Networks and the IBM System Cluster 1350 Lowers Costs, Improves Systems and Halves ROI Period
| Source: Cisco
BOLOGNA, ITALY--(Marketwire - June 26, 2007) - Research projects that impact peoples'
lives, such as predictions of volcanic eruptions or the development of new
medicines and treatment, could soon be completed faster and at a lower
cost.
Italian universities and research organizations that use Cineca, the
largest computing center in Italy and one of the largest in world, will
benefit from the recent deployment of high-performance computing (HPC)
technologies from Cisco® (NASDAQ : CSCO ) and IBM (NYSE : IBM ). HPC will help
researchers accelerate projects, make better investment decisions, and
reduce research and development costs. For example, projects such as
forecasting the odds that Mount Vesuvius will erupt would have been
impossible or far too expensive to achieve, due to the huge computing power
required. Cineca also believes that the Cisco and IBM technologies will
help it cut its return-on-investment period by almost 50 percent, from
three years to just 18 months.
Cineca has deployed Cisco HPC InfiniBand and Ethernet networks for the HPC
cluster and as part of an IBM System Cluster 1350 solution, which includes
more than 1,200 BladeCenter servers. The solution provides 10-gigabit
InfiniBand connectivity with support for more than half a petabyte of data
and will allow customers (including 65 Italian universities and leading
research and government organizations) to cut costs and time necessary for
scientific, medical and geophysical development.
"As one of Europe's leading computing centers, demand for our
high-performance computing services and facilities to support vital
research and development projects is increasing all the time. Soon we
expect to exceed 1 petabyte of data," said Sanzio Bassini, director of
Cineca's System and Technology Department. "The impact of deploying
technology from Cisco and IBM to improve the cost, quality and capacity of
services we can offer our customers is very significant. Projects such as
assessing and improving risk management if Mount Vesuvius erupts, or
developing a new generation in molecular dynamics, would not have been
possible before deploying the Cisco and IBM System Cluster 1350 solution.
The collaboration with Cisco and IBM will also increase knowledge transfer
to help Cineca achieve its mission to provide customers with the most
advanced services and solutions and to help them innovate."
The Cisco HPC solution, comprising InfiniBand and Ethernet networks and a
storage area network, supports five main computer systems and has enabled
Cineca to develop a layered campus network architecture. This includes
Cisco Ethernet and InfiniBand switch modules for IBM BladeCenter and Cisco SFS 7000
Series InfiniBand Server Switches which provide a low-latency,
high-bandwidth HPC cluster solution for interconnecting a cluster's
computing nodes. Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Series Switches, Cisco 7600 Series Routers and Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switches support a blend of 1-gigabit,
4-gigabit and 10-gigabit network connections.
"Cineca shows how enterprises, governments and academic organizations can
use high-performance computer clusters to run HPC applications in order to
provide faster 'time to enlightenment' that can increase an organization's
profitability and competitiveness," said Carlo Mirone, director for the
public sector market, Cisco Italy. "The Cisco and IBM integrated HPC
solution addresses diverse communications, performance and storage
requirements for demanding HPC and grid applications, helping customers to
accelerate projects, make better investment decisions and reduce costs."
"By deploying the IBM System Cluster 1350, Cineca has been able to provide
its clients with leading technologies for high-performance computing such
as blade servers and high-bandwidth networking switches to help push
research computing to the next frontier," said Wendy McGee, director, IBM
Cluster Solutions. "IBM looks forward to continuing its collaboration with
Cisco, offering customers a highly scalable solution for high-performance
commercial applications and server consolidation. IBM and Cisco's
innovative clustering technology solutions will help enable customers to
reduce time and resources to improve customer service."
About Cineca
Cineca is a consortium of 31 universities plus the CNR (the National
Research Council) and the Ministry of University and Research. Cineca is
Italy's largest computing center, is ranked in the top ten in Europe and
at number 44 worldwide. It provides a range of HPC computing services for
scientific research and development, technology innovation and business
application support to around 65 universities in Italy, the Italian
government, research institutions and the private sector. Half a million
users per month access applications in Cineca's data center. Located in
Bologna, Cineca has 350 employees.
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