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Constellation Technologies and CambridgeUniversityExplore the Cloud Together; Technology has huge potential benefits for industry(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oxfordshire, UK -- Constellation Technologies, the Oxfordshire-based developer of grid computing software, and the Universityof CambridgeeScience Centre (CeSC) will collaborate to investigate the opportunities offered by cloud computing for industry and academia. Constellation Technologies and CeSC have already delivered one successful pilot project for a major pharmaceutical company. Cloud computing promises to provide access to distributed computing resources over the Internet, and is widely seen as a way of reducing IT costs. It also has the potential to be an effective way for academic groups to collaborate. Constellation Technologies and CeSC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen connections between the two organizations, and to provide the basis for prospective projects and knowledge exchange activities. The term 'cloud computing' comes from the widely accepted way of depicting the Internet on network diagrams in the form of a 'cloud' sign. Constellation Technologies is a spinout company from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), and has an ambitious goal to commercialisedistributed computing technologies developed at RAL for the benefit of industrial users of cloud computing. These technologies were created by the particle physics community to meet the challenges of handling data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, home of the World Wide Web. The LHC experiment will be producing up to 20 Petabytes of data per year. The design of the systems will give Constellation Technologies the scalability to satisfy the most demanding industrial customers. CeSC has delivered a large number of Grid computing projects in various research and industrial domains and is open to new challenges from the field of cloud computing. "Industry wants more than just access to raw computing resources", says Nick Trigg, CEO of Constellation Technologies. "Companies need solutions to their problems that are cost effective, scalable and easy to use, and that is exactly what Constellation Technologies will be offering in collaboration with its academic partners." "Building scientific and commercial applications in the cloud is a natural extension of our work in Grid technologies", said Mark Hayes, Director of Cambridge eScience Centre. "We want to bring the results of this work to a wider audience." Michael Simmons, eScience Development Manager and STFC PIPSS Fellow, added: "We are looking forward to developing a very fruitful collaboration with Constellation Technologies which will bring great benefit to both organizations". About Constellation Technologies Ltd Constellation Technologies is a pioneer in global grid infrastructure software. The company was formed in 2007 as a result of a collaboration effort at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), UKand CERN, Switzerland. It is supported by STFC (UK Science and Technology Facilities Council). Constellation Technologies develops solutions for cloud computing using technology based on the gLite grid middleware developed in European project EGEE led by CERN in Genevain Switzerland. The SupercloudTM will provide a utility cloud computing platform with dynamic computer resource provision, satisfying the immediate data processing needs for a wide spectrum of enterprises or individuals. gLite middleware has a high level of technology readiness as demonstrated by its deployment within the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) and other scientific and academic projects. About Cambridge eScience Centre The CambridgeeScience Centre (CeSC) supports research projects involving scientists and industry using Grid-enabled applications. It is part of the Centre for Scientific Computing (www.csc.cam.ac.uk) together with the High Performance Computing Service - one of the largest academic supercomputers in the UK. It also carries out teaching activities at the Masters degree level. CeSC coordinates and maintains CamGrid, the University's high throughput computing resource based on the Condor middleware that provides a powerful computational tool for a large number of Cambridgeacademics from various scientific domains. CeSC is closely linked to the Cambridge High Energy Physics Group that is a member of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid collaboration. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2009 M2 COMMUNICATIONS |