Singapore’s Grid Service Provider Deploys Platform Computing

TORONTO, July 7 /PRNewswire/ — Platform Computing, the leader in grid and cloud computing software, today announced that Platform will be enabling Singapore’s largest commercial grid computing service with its technology. Platform will be providing virtual machine management and high performance computing (HPC) software to Alatum, Singapore’s cloud computing utility. Alatum, established by SingTel in conjunction with partners including Platform, delivers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ecosystem to businesses and public sector organizations within Singapore and across Asia. Platform’s software helps manage the infrastructure behind this large scale cloud computing project, equipping enterprises with on-demand and pay-as-you-go access to data center compute resources and software including HPC and business applications.

Alatum will deliver a range of computing power, storage and software applications on a pay-per-use basis, on-demand and online to enable commercial and public sector organizations access to more cost-effective, integrated and easily-managed IT solutions. Combining the benefits of Platform VM Orchestrator (VMO), Platform LSF, Platform Cluster Manager (PCM) and Platform Symphony software with some of the leading technologies from vendors including Citrix, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat and Salesforce.com has created a robust computing environment for both business and technical users. Customers already using the Alatum platform include Research International, K2 Specialist Services and Vestas Technology R&D Singapore.

“Cloud computing is the future of IT and this ambitious project will support Singapore’s growth as a shared services hub for Asia,” said Alvin Kok, Chief, Alatum, SingTel. “Working with many of world’s premier IT providers such as Platform Computing, we have created a computing platform for commercial and public sector organizations to cost effectively access the best and most advanced technologies, applications and services. We have seen tremendous uptake in our services since the launch and believe more organizations will turn to us as they look to free up their enterprises from the expense and hassle of managing their own IT network.”

“We are on the cusp of a major paradigm shift as grid evolves to cloud computing,” said Songnian Zhou, CEO, Platform Computing. “Alatum is creating a service that is meeting the needs of organizations to help them make the most of cloud. Delivering high availability computing and applications is critical in today’s economy and our software is playing a key role in helping Alatum deliver its services, as well as supporting its ambitions in becoming one of the major centers for cloud computing in Asia.”

Alatum provides two core offerings for its customers: an enterprise cloud and a HPC grid based on either Microsoft or Linux-based environments. Platform’s technology will deliver the following business benefits:

• Virtual management and utilization – Platform VMO acts as a virtual controller, able to automatically detect failures and load balance the virtual machines across the entire computing cluster by following policies set by the administrator. The software also provides information on the utilization of the virtual environment to ensure high availability of services.
• Workload management - Platform OCS 5 provisions the hardware for the HPC grid and provides ongoing hardware management. This is particularly important in helping Alatum offer either Microsoft or Linux-based HPC environments. Platform LSF and Platform Symphony are utilized by Alatum for workload management on the Linux side on the applications being run by the customer.
• Resource management - To ensure that Alatum is a success, resource management is critical and Platform VMO and Platform LSF provide the necessary policy-driven dynamic resource management required to manage the virtual infrastructure.
• Easy billing - Using a single sign on portal, with full authentication, this provides users with complete transparency of their real-time usage and services purchased. When users log-on and use services, the event is recorded by the billing system. Billing information is provided by Platform VMO for data on virtual machine utilization and Perf for core utilization on the HPC side.

About Alatum

Alatum is a collaboration between SingTel and some of the world’s leading technology vendors to provide commercial grid computing services to business enterprises and public sector agencies. Following the project award by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore in June 2008, Alatum will deliver software, computing power and storage as a pay-per-use, on-demand, on-line service to customers.

With its strong technology partnerships, Alatum will be the platform where enterprises and consumers can benefit from affordable, secure, on-demand access to high performance computing, software and data storage services.

About Platform Computing

Platform Computing is the leader in grid and cloud computing software that dynamically connects IT resources to workload demand according to business policies. Over 2,000 of the world’s largest organizations rely on our solutions to improve IT productivity and reduce data center costs. Platform has strategic relationships with Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, and SAS. Building on 17 years of market leadership, Platform continues to help data centers be more efficient, responsive and dynamic. Visit www.platform.com.

SOURCE Platform Computing