Kuo Tiong Blaise

Abstract Reference: 30959
Identifier: P3.6
Presentation: Poster presentation
Key Theme: 3 New Trends in HPC and Distributed Computing

Cloud Driven Multidisciplinary Changes to Computing Infrastructure at Canada France Hawaii Telescope Corporation

Authors:
Kuo Tiong Blaise,

With the proliferation and availability of Software as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service, many organizations face decisions on their computing systems architecture that take into account the cloud looming overhead. At CFHT, computing has mainly stayed under the roof or dome, but the cloud has had an undeniable effect on systems design. Increasingly, the solutions to address goals and targets are multidisciplinary in nature since we do not seek mere functionality and usability, but now also expand to seek efficiency, green operations and continuity. Starting with the data center, a few considerations were made on how to optimize the room’s energy use by looking at room layout, local climate and materials. Coupled with renewable energy sources, not only were Power Use Efficiencies improved but also carbon impact. To be able to increase utilization and also reduced costs, a Linux based virtualized environment was implemented and finer granulation is being explored with containers. Finally, certain services have been migrated to Software as a Service options and facets like storage and network services have been transitioned to readily deployable open source solutions to increase continuity.