Harness the Power of the Google Compute Engine
July 5, 2012
“Oh, me too, me too!” At the recent Google I/O Conference, Google made the announcement heralded in ExtremeTech’s “Google Compute Engine: for $2 Million/Day, Your Company Can Run the Third Fastest Supercomputer in the World.” Yes, Compute Engine is now available as an infrastructure-as-a-service (a.k.a. the Cloud), positioning itself in direct competition with Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure. Writer Sebastian Anthony reveals:
“Citing more than a decade of running and optimizing its own data centers and network infrastructure, Google is claiming that the Compute Engine is more scalable, more stable, and cheaper than the competition. . . . Google is claiming that Compute Engine gives you 50% more bang for your buck — though the company didn’t go as far as calling Amazon or Microsoft out. A quick glance at the Amazon EC2 pricing page suggests that Google’s $1.16/hour is actually more expensive, but perhaps it isn’t an apples-apples comparison.”
Perhaps not; that claim would bear some more investigation. The article examines the numbers behind the scalability assertion, noting that the Compute Engine has access to 777,000 processing cores. Compare that to Sequoia, the reigning fastest supercomputer, with 1.78 million cores. Ah big cars, big cigars, and big clouds. Boys will be boys, even when they are men.
In related links, click here for a Google tutorial on how to start, log in, and stop a Compute Engine virtual machine and set up a basic web server for it. It is a useful reference to tuck into your files.
Cynthia Murrell, July 5, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
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