Roundup: SGI, Cloudera, HP, PEER 1

Here’s our review of noteworthy news in the data center industry:

SGI and Cloudera Partner.  SGI and Cloudera jointly announced that their companies have signed an agreement for SGI to distribute Cloudera software pre-installed on SGI Hadoop Clusters. Together the companies will build, sell and deploy integrated, high performance Apache Hadoop-based commercial solutions. Cloudera's version of the open source Apache Hadoop is the most widely deployed distribution in both commercial and non-commercial environments and SGI was among the first technology vendors to embrace and proliferate the use of Apache Hadoop. "Leveraging Cloudera's Distribution Including Apache Hadoop together with our SGI Hadoop Cluster, we achieved a world record Hadoop benchmark for data processing and analysis - 81% faster than the competition," said Bill Mannel, vice president of product marketing at SGI. "CDH (Cloudera's Distribution Including Apache Hadoop), combined with Cloudera's management suite, puts the promise and potential of Hadoop - and the complete Hadoop stack - within reach. We are pleased to work with Cloudera, and together, we are enabling our mutual customers to streamline the path to putting Hadoop to work for their businesses." SGI also announced that it has established a new world record performance benchmark for Terasort data processing and analysis using Apache Hadoop clusters running on CDH. Results achieved in September, 2011 show that a 20-node SGI Hadoop cluster comprised of SGI Rackable C2005-TY6 half-depth servers with Intel Xeon processor E5630 series, 48GB of memory, and 4x 1TB SATA HDDs running on Cloudera CDH3 took only 130 seconds to complete a Terasort with a job size of 100GB.

HP selected by Server Cloud Canada.  HP (HPQ) announced that hosting company Server Cloud Canada has selected HP Converged Infrastructure technology, enabling the company to implement a private cloud for more reliable IT service delivery and improved customer service. Needing a scalable and reliable infrastructure Server Cloud Canada evaluated Dell, Cisco, and IBM, but selected HP CloudSystem Matrix as the foundation to deliver private clouds to customers. They also saw reduced power costs by almost 60 percent, and they liked the HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Modules.  Additionally, Server Cloud Canada implemented HP P4000 LeftHand Storage Systems, as well as HP 6600 switch series with 10GbE support, replacing Cisco Catalyst switches resulting in better network performance. “We wanted a solution where each component installed was best in its class,” said Kevin Moniz, chief technology officer, Server Cloud Canada. “HP had a complete product top to bottom, where we could say it’s tried, true and tested. No competitor could match that, and we believe this gives us a competitive advantage.”

PEER 1 Opens Portsmouth data center.  PEER 1 Hosting (PIX) announced that they have opened their new 57,800 square foot green datacenter in Portsmouth, UK Monday.  Started earlier this year, the data center incorporated a POD design (Performance Optimized Datacenter).  The new facility is close to London and boasts 11MVA of available power, room for 20,000 servers, and provides a direct connection to PEER 1 Hosting’s 10Gb FastFiber Network.  To achieve a predicted 1.1 PUE PEER 1 will be the first in the world to use the energy-efficient Excool cooling system. The system harnesses the natural cooling effect of air and water, using a super-efficient heat exchange system, low-energy fans and water atomisers. “Datacenter demand shows no signs of slowing down. Our £45 million (USD$70m) investment in this state-of-the art facility is testament to PEER 1 delivering the services that our customers need and are going to need in the future,” said Dominic Monkhouse, EMEA managing director of PEER 1 Hosting. “By investing, we have developed a wholly-owned datacenter that leads the way in reducing the carbon footprint for our customers, delivers 24/7 service and provides customers with the capacity to grow.”