Platform Application Center Promises Easy Access to HPC Applications with Improved Efficiency, Delivery for Administrators and Users

TORONTO, Canada, Nov. 16, 2009 – Platform Computing, the leader in cluster, grid and cloud management software, today announced the introduction of the Platform Application Center, a new product that enables HPC end users to easily submit and manage various HPC applications through a web-based portal interface. In addition, Platform is announcing two upgrades to its HPC products: Platform LSF 7 Update 6 and Platform HPC Workgroup Manager 1.1.

Platform Application Center is available as an optional capability for both Platform LSF 7 and Platform HPC Workgroup Manager, making the configuration and use of HPC applications in a heterogeneous HPC cluster simple for both end users and administrators. It allows administrators to easily customize and publish HPC software as a service for end users through an easy-to-use, self-service portal. Application interfaces for popular HPC applications are included out-of-the-box, along with a highly customizable web-based GUI template for administrators to create additional application interfaces for new HPC applications. It also provides the ability to manage jobs and application data, as an alternative to using command line syntax.

“Running and managing HPC applications in a dynamic, multi-user cluster environment has been a big challenge for average users. The release of the Platform Application Center, along with these upgrades to Platform LSF and Platform HPC Workgroup Manager, makes accessing HPC applications and managing cluster and application environments much easier for users and administrators,” said Jingwen Wang, Vice President, Products, Platform Computing. “The introduction of the Platform Application Center as an add-on for both product lines also provides our customers with a set of tightly integrated products that unleash end user productivity while allowing administrators to deliver better services in support of applications and end users.”

Platform LSF 7 Update 6 also adds more job scheduling functionality for large-scale and complex HPC environments, designed to make users more productive and cluster administration more intuitive. A new scheduling feature allows users to define a multi-phased resource reservation, allowing resource scheduling changes across a job’s entire lifecycle rather than basing resource reservations on peak-demand requirements. This shortens job wait times, boosting overall productivity. Also included are a new job description syntax, improved exception reporting and other enhancements designed to provide greater control over jobs forwarded to remote clusters.

Platform HPC Workgroup Manager 1.1 is an advanced cluster management solution that combines all the cluster management tools necessary to easily deploy, run and manage HPC environments into one product set. These new capabilities fulfill current demand for improved application performance, workload management, provisioning and node management. The upgrade also includes the ability to dynamically switch operating systems on a compute node based on workload demand.

More on Platform Application Center
Platform Application Center is designed to empower HPC application users by providing a portal that allows access to various HPC applications and the ability to manage both jobs and data from any device with a browser. By using familiar application-centric interfaces, training time and errors are reduced. With out-of-the-box application web interfaces for a number of popular HPC applications, applications can be tailored via templates that reflect user-specific job submission preferences. New application web interfaces can also be added easily through a GUI-based template without writing any code. Featured highlights of the Platform Application Center include:

• Role-based, self-service access – Integrates with an existing authentication mechanism and distinguishes between regular cluster users and cluster administrators providing appropriate access based on the user’s role.
• Web-based management - Provides easy job management for both users and administrators, including operations such as submitting, suspending, resuming, ending or re-queuing jobs without the need to learn Platform LSF command line syntax.
• Flexible data management – Monitors job output in real-time, uploads or downloads files as needed or compresses into various archive formats, making simulation results easier to store and catalog.
• Integrated cluster monitoring and reporting – Includes built-in cluster and mode monitoring, as well as a web-based interface for administrators to check cluster health and node status, along with access to Platform LSF reporting features.

Availability
Platform LSF 7 Update 6, Platform HPC Workgroup Manager 1.1 and Platform Application Center are all immediately available from Platform. For more information on each of these products, please visit the following:

• Platform LSF 7 Update 6: http://www.platform.com/grids/platform-lsf
• Platform HPC Workgroup Manager 1.1: http://www.platform.com/clusters/platform-hpc-workgroup-manager
• Platform Application Center: http://www.platform.com/grids/platform-lsf/add-on-products/platform-application-center

About Platform Computing
Platform Computing is the leader in cluster, grid and cloud management software - serving more than 2,000 of the world’s most demanding organizations. For 17 years, our workload and resource management solutions have delivered IT responsiveness and lower costs for enterprise and HPC applications. Platform has strategic relationships with Cray, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, and SAS. Visit www.platform.com.

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