Victoria Partnership for Academic Computing chooses Linux (page 2 of 2)

Leveraging OpenPower system features, VPAC has achieved 80 to 90 percent processor utilization.

Also, according to Bannon, the system has had minimal downtime in the eight months since VPAC starting running it. "This is great performance—the kind of performance we require to support our customers and to establish a reliable portal in a grid computing environment," he says.

With the OpenPower 720 systems at the center of its IT infrastructure, VPAC has improved its client responsiveness and boosted availability for clients' demanding workloads, providing users with a significant increase in computing power over its previous Compaq AlphaSC solution.

Says Professor Bill Appelbe, founder of VPAC, "As a result of these performance gains, we've been able to improve overall client service levels. Jobs run much more quickly, and we have much shorter user queues. Our new system is giving us outstanding scalability as well, allowing us to add more concurrent users without affecting performance."

Low energy costs

In addition to generating impressive performance figures, the OpenPower 720 Linux cluster has been extremely dependable and energy efficient compared to the Compaq AlphaSC.

"This OpenPower system is yielding substantial savings in energy costs. Because of the Power5 architecture's lower power consumption, we enjoy lower peripheral costs, such as the cost of air conditioning," says Bannon. "Over a few years' time, these can add up to substantial savings."

Applebee is particularly impressed with the IBM's support and service, which enables his organization to focus on meeting the needs of its growing client base. "Obviously, IT is intrinsic to our business and the services we offer clients. However, with IBM's support, we can feel confident about delivering the level of service users require.

For example, often IBM detects hardware issues before our clients experience a problem, so we can continue running work on the specific node until the job is complete, and then shut down the node and reroute other jobs.

The transition between nodes is completely transparent to users, so it helps us minimize downtime. We always knew we could count on IBM technology and support, and our choice has been validated by our growing number of satisfied clients."