HP unveils utility services for flexible computing

HP Tuesday introduced several utility computing services that will cater to IT managers looking for a way to handle internal fluctuations in demand for computing resources.

IT managers from PDI/Dreamworks and Schlumberger were on hand to tout the benefits of HP's new Infrastructure Provisioning Service (IPS) and Application Provisioning Service (APS). The two offerings provide extra computing power to businesses that don't wish to deploy servers just to handle temporary surges in demand, said Brian Fowler, utility services global director for HP.

Utility computing is a much-discussed but still-emerging concept in data-center computing. The basic idea is to allow customers to tap into a pool of computing resources hosted by a provider such as HP. IBM and Sun are also developing their own similar services.

Some customers, such as animation houses like PDI/Dreamworks, face cyclical demand for computing resources tied to certain events, like the release of an upcoming movie. In the past, these companies would have to purchase and maintain sufficient computing resources to handle those peaks in demand, but that capacity would sit idle most of the time, Fowler said.

HP's new services allow customers to send their data for processing in HP data centers in Paris and Houston, said Norman Lindsey, architect of utility computing services. The data can be compressed and encrypted for transport over the Internet, or larger data sets can be physically mailed to those HP centers, he said.

With the basic IPS, customers can choose the type of HP server that will process their data, Fowler said. Basic processing on 32-bit processors from Intel costs 55 cents per processor per hour, while servers based on Intel's Itanium processor are also available for $1.50 per processor per hour. Servers based on Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit chips or Intel's 64-bit x86 processors are priced in between those two endpoints, he said.

Customers can also choose to have HP manage grid computing software or compilers that will help process their data with the IPS+ offering. Companies such as Platform Computing, United Devices and PathScale will provide software for this service.

The APS offering has HP managing application software, such as its APS for computer-aided engineering, for its customers, Fowler said. Customers that need to use sophisticated applications for managing fluid dynamics, for example, can use this service to process their data and produce the complicated models they need, he said.

Dreamworks has been working with HP on utility computing services for about three years, said Mike Kiernan, head of systems infrastructure for PDI/Dreamworks, the Northern California animation arm of the Dreamworks movie studio. Computer-generated movies such as Shrek 2 and Madagascar were created using early versions of HP's flexible computing services, he said.

PDI/Dreamworks faces strict production deadlines, and HP's services allow Dreamworks' artists to take advantage of additional computing resources to make sure they get the color or movement of characters exactly right, Kiernan said. Without the extra capacity, PDI/Dreamworks would have to reallocate computing resources dedicated to future films to handle the present problem, delaying the production of upcoming films, he said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.