Penguin Computing Ships Scyld ClusterWare(TM)

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Penguin Computing, the leader in Cluster Virtualization, today announced availability of its new Scyld ClusterWare(TM) platform, which provides a virtualized cluster environment that is so easy to manage, even non-system administrators can run a cluster. This simplicity of management and scalability is a result of Scyld ClusterWare HPC's innovative, single point command/control architecture that has earned it Linux Journal Product Excellence Award finalist status Scyld ClusterWare HPC significantly improves system scalability while retaining overall simplicity of management with enhanced "just-in-time" provisioning. This unique new cluster technology also supports multiple operating systems, including CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES, so that standard applications run "out-of-box," giving customers broad application compatibility in a predictable environment.

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"In today's dynamic and highly competitive business environment providing a guaranteed high performance computing service that delivers the right results, at the right time and at the right cost, is a constant challenge," said Pauline Nist, senior vice president of product development and management of Penguin Computing. "Key to this is finding the right solution for deploying and managing resources, scaling on-demand to ever-changing workload requirements, and achieving the highest utilization levels matched to business priorities. This is where the concept of Cluster Virtualization -- making large pools of Linux servers appear and act like a single, consistent, virtual system -- comes in.

"We built the third generation of our cluster virtualization technology, Scyld ClusterWare, with these customers' needs in mind," Nist added. "With the lowest total cost of ownership -- even among free cluster technologies -- we think Scyld ClusterWare is just what customers with compute-intensive applications need. There is no doubt that the more servers you have to manage, the harder and more costly it becomes. Scyld ClusterWare reduces the entire pool to a logical extension of the single Master machine and makes that pool phenomenally easier and less expensive to work with."

This hardened, commercial grade solution makes large pools of Linux servers appear and act like a single virtual system. Through Scyld ClusterWare's single point of command/control (the "Master"), thousands of systems can be managed as if they were a single, consistent, virtual system, dramatically simplifying deployment and management and significantly improving server performance and data center resource utilization. The compute servers exist only to run applications specified by the Master node and are automatically provisioned with a lightweight, in-memory operating system from the single software installation on that Master. In this way, the compute servers are fully provisioned in under 20 seconds and users can flexibly add or delete nodes, or repurpose them, on demand, in seconds, making the cluster extraordinarily scalable and resilient. In addition, the nodes are always consistent, which is critical in HPC, and stripped of any unnecessary system services and associated vulnerabilities, making the cluster inherently more reliable and secure.

About Penguin Computing

Penguin Computing is the leader in Cluster Virtualization, delivering virtualized cluster systems driven by Scyld ClusterWare(TM) its unique Linux software, which makes large pools of Linux servers appear and act like a single virtual system. Through a single point of command/control, thousands of systems can be managed as if they were a single, consistent, virtual system, dramatically simplifying deployment and management and significantly improving server performance and data center resource utilization. Focused on the high performance computing, enterprise consolidation and web hosting markets, the company has an extensive customer base including Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies and educational institutions. Founded in 1998, Penguin Computing is headquartered in San Francisco, California. To learn more about High Performance Computing Linux and Web Clustering, please visit Penguin Computing at http://www.penguincomputing.com .

Scyld ClusterWare Features & Benefits Feature Benefit Support for industry standard -- ISV Application Compatibility

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4 -- Flexibility to fit into your

ecosystem Complete, Architected and Integrated -- "Day 1" out-of the box

Solution that is commercially productivity

supported and works out of the box -- No need to find and cobble

together a solution

-- Ongoing expert support there when

you need it to remain competitive Stateless Provisioning Architecture -- Installations/Updates on Master

Node only

-- Add/Update Compute Nodes in

seconds Lightweight Compute Operating -- Enhanced Performance

Environment -- 50x more memory for the

application

-- Enhanced Scalability

-- Enhanced Security; no traditional

attack points Single System Process Space -- Cluster acts and feels like a

single virtual machine

-- Single point of

Installation/Management

-- Single point to Launch Jobs

-- Instant visibility into entire

cluster on Master

-- Less scripting as all jobs are

intuitively scheduled to a

virtual pool of processors

-- Supports JIT provisioning:

enables compute nodes to

provision on demand, only what

they need

NOTE: Penguin Computing, the Penguin Computing logo and Scyld ClusterWare are registered trademarks of Penguin Computing, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.