bbgm - the discussion - Latest Comments in Rethinking software access

Re: Rethinking software access

mndoci — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:49:57 -0000

That's a great question actually. I had a long discussion on this issue at Bio-IT World. It totally depends on your needs. I fully agree with Chris Dagdigian in that small clusters are essentially dead. We will use desktops/workstations for some tasks (multicores, accelerators etc) and dial up extra CPU cycles when required from Amazon etc. That's the best part about AWS. If I want to dial up a 100 CPUs I can and only need to pay for the time that I am using those cycles.

Re: Rethinking software access

timvdm — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:59:07 -0000

The nice thing about NAMD is that it can use your GPU as computing resource (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Rese.... However, this only works when you have GPGPU (nVidia CUDA, http://www.nvidia.com/objec... enabled graphic cards. These cards range from less than $100 to more than $1000. So I think the big question is, are users more likely to setup their own system. This could even be using their own desktop computer and just wait till it's done. Or, is there a demand for a paid service that provides access to such (clusters of) machines.

Re: Rethinking software access

anna — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:29:57 -0000

My alternative solution would be to make academic affiliation more accessible. OpenUniversity 2.0 perhaps?

Re: Rethinking software access

mndoci — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:58:02 -0000

Correct. Or some other related form of utility pricing. To me, on the web, as a service, per seat licensing just doesn't make sense.

Re: Rethinking software access

mpfefferle — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:40:56 -0000

So you want to host compute intensive open-source software in the cloud and charge by the cycle. That sounds like it could be a nice sweet spot in between web2.0 everything is free and pricey per-seat licensing fees.