European Weather Center To Rely on Linux

The system, an Evolocity II Linux Networx cluster, will be used to evaluate the suitability of cluster technology for broader deployment within the center's high performance production environment.

The deal is important for two reasons, Linux Networx Vice President of Marketing Eric Pitcher told LinuxInsider. First, and most obviously, gaining such a prestigious client will have an impact on the Utah-based company, which specializes in building Linux clusters, he said.

Secondly, the deal will have implications for the increasing use of Linux clusters for computing power in other fields and industries. "This shows that these clusters are becoming ready for prime time," Pitcher explained.

Becoming Mainstream

Linux clusters have been garnering more attention lately, as the demand for more computing power is felt not just by universities and research labs, but also by large enterprises and worldwide governmental agencies.

Pitcher noted, "This technology has really matured from being experimental, with systems put together in labs, to technology that's more mainstream."

Several high-profile projects have emerged to advance Linux clustering, including a recent addition of a cluster at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The lab has implemented a new Thunder cluster that is considered the largest Linux cluster available.

Linux Networx also has reported another recent success story, with the sale of a 556-processor cluster to Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The new cluster will join with other systems to form the country's largest distributed computing grid.

Linux is becoming more popular for cluster computing because of its price and open-source architecture, Pitcher said. "It's a big advantage to have software that's being developed by a worldwide community of experts," he said. "It really is a new paradigm."

Increased Computer Power

One field that will benefit from clusters in the future is meteorology, which requires tremendous computing power to run models and simulations.

For most companies specializing in weather information, data is obtained from government sources in a raw feed and must be converted to a readable format. Although it might sound like a simple task, the feed is equivalent to a fire hose that must be reduced to a manageable stream, Rick Rosen, former president of the American Meteorological Society, said.

He told LinuxInsider that there has been a boom in the number of meteorology companies that provide data for news stations, major corporations and even smaller enterprises like golf courses or municipalities.

"A major factor has been an increase in computer power, because meteorology has been at the cutting edge of using the best and biggest computers," he explained. "The better computer we have, the more we're able to incorporate observations."

He added that higher computer power, like that found in cluster computing, is of great benefit to the field. "It's quite an endeavor to blend all this data together; it requires large computer facilities," he noted. "Anything that helps advance that, to make those equations faster, is an advantage."

Far-Reaching Impact

If the wealth of meteorology companies begin to rely more heavily on Linux clusters, the impact could be felt beyond the industry.

It is possible that the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' use could kickstart that movement. The center is responsible for acquiring, organizing and analyzing recent meteorological observations, generating 10-day weather forecasts for 25 European locations.

The Evolocity II cluster will be used as a test bed for various aspects of the center's operational workload. Pitcher noted that Linux Networx was chosen because the European Centre liked the company's expertise with new interconnect technology, called Infiniband, which allows for more efficient connection of nodes.

Pitcher added that as the European Centre finds success with Linux cluster computing, the field will gain even more exposure.

"There's still room for development," he said. "But growth in Linux clusters has been phenomenal, and we expect that will continue."