By Charles F. Moreira
It may come as a surprise to some that the world’s leading processor maker Intel is also into big data and cloud computing.
At the heart of all computing clouds and data centres are hundreds or even thousands of server computers. At the heart of every server is a microprocessor and at the heart of up to 95% of servers worldwide is an Intel microprocessor and supporting chipset.
So it’s no surprise that Intel is heavily into cloud and data centres, and growing.
“Intel had focused its efforts on servers since the 1990s and makes most operational margin on handheld clients, since every five or six additional clients require an extra server to support them,” Lynn Comp, Intel Director of Data Centre Solutions and Technologies Initiatives told Enterprise IT News at the Intel Big Data & Cloud Summit 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 20 August, 2013.
“Whilst analysts see the convergence of the PC with the tablet, still certain tasks require a full-blown PC and Intel aims to enable others to innovate on top of our hardware,” Comp added in reply to our question regarding the future of the PC.
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| Lynn Comp – Intel |
For example, Intel is collaborating with Samsung on the Tizen open source device operating system for smartphones, tablets, in-vehicle infotainment devices, smart TVs and so on. It’s supposed to provide a consistent user experience across all device types and is seen as a challenge to the Android OS backed by Google.
As for cloud computing Intel is heavily into the software and middleware to enable and optimise servers and cloud software, such as Intel’s own distribution of the Apache Hadoop open source framework for storing and processing large volumes of diverse data on a scalable cluster of servers. Intel added enhancements to its Hadoop distribution, to make it easier to manage and more secure.
Its Hadoop distribution is the first to provide complete encryption with support for Intel AES New Instructions in the Intel Xeon processor. By integrating silicon-based encryption support of the Hadoop Distributed File System, organisations can now more securely analyse their data sets without compromising performance.
The optimisations made for the networking and I/O technologies in the Xeon platform by Intel’s Hadoop distribution also enable new levels of performance, which for example allows the analysis of one terabyte of data to be done in seven minutes, instead of four hours previously, according to a 2011 IDC report.
The Intel Enterprise Edition for Lustre software is a validated and supported edition of Lustre with management tools and and a new adaptor for the Intel Distribution. Lustre is an open source parallel distributed file system and key storage technology that ties together data and d enables extremely fast access.
Working together, the Intel Distribution and Intel Enterprise Edition for Lustre software let Hadoop run on top of Lustre, significantly improving the speed at which data can be accessed and analysed. It also allows for more productive use of storage assets and simpler storage management.
Intel’s other initiatives in big data include setting up of the Intel Science and Technology Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and its release of a beta edition of GraphBuilder, an open source application which lets scientists rapidly develop new applications by constructing graphs showing relationships between data. Meanwhile, Intel Capital continues to make major investments in disruptive big data analytics technologies.
In the APAC
In the Asia Pacific, Intel works with systems integrators, independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers and training partners to bring its big data solutions to market. These include companies such as SAP, SAS, Cisco, Dell, Quanta Computer, RedHat, McAfee and many others.
Intel in collaboration with Dell and Revolution Analytics recently launched the Big Data Innovation Centre in Singapore. This is the first major effort aimed at unlocking the full value of the Asia Pacific’s growing market for big data analytics.
One of Intel’s major customers in the region is the Taiwan Stock Exchange, which worked with Intel on a joint proof-of-concept to increase the overall trust and security of its cloud infrastructure using Intel Trusted Execution technology, Cisco Unified Computing System and software solutions from HyTrust, McAfee and VMware.
With this, the Taiwan Stock Exchange expects many other business units to be able to more effectively use cloud infrastructures to increase business agility, reduce costs and improve asset utilisation without compromising security.
Da’ Nang
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is heavily into development of its information and communications infrastructure, affordable broadband connectivity and services such as e-government, smart cities, public transport monitoring and management, disaster warning and others, all of which employ cloud computing, big data analytics, data centres and so on.
A one-party state headed by the Communist Party of Vietnam with a guiding ideology of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought, Vietnam is a planned economy which practises a form of market socialism, and has opened itself up to foreign investment and development with the assistance of very much capitalist foreign multinationals, including western IT giants such as Intel, IBM, Cisco and others. A unitary state (as opposed to a federation or a confederation), Vietnam has a central government which works through local governments of its 63 municipals.
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| A portrait of Ho Chi Minh overlooks a public park in Ho Chi Minh City |
In 2011, Intel Vietnam and Da’ Nang City’s Department of Information and Communications agreed to cooperate on the sharing the technology and experience to build a green data centre in the city. Experts from Intel and the Da’ Nang local government worked together to apply world-class IT in government offices across the city from then till 2015.
By now, Da’ Nang has implemented Intelligent Power Node Manager (NM)/Data Center Manager (DCM) and Intel VMDq for the data centre technologies. The city has also joined the Open Data Center Alliance, which will allow it to access and select open international standards that meet the city’s current and future data centre requirements. Da’ nang’s data centre is the foundation of an ICT infrastructure for e-government services.
By April 2013, the Da’ Nang People’s Committee had introduced 135 e-government services. The local government aims to complete its e-government transformation by 2020.
The People’s Committee also wants to provide e-services for all the major departments including: the Department of Construction, Department of Internal Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Labour and Social Affairs, Department of Information and Communications, Department of Finance and Department of Justice.
“Besides e-government, the data centre will also help Da’ Nang become a smart city, as software and sensors embedded in roads and buses will allow city administrators to synchronise traffic lights to minimise traffic jams and maximise efficiency of its public transport system,” said Sean C. Mai, Intel Vietnam General Manager.
“The government aims for 80% of businesses to file their taxes online by 2015 and foreign investors wanting to start up businesses, including technology start-ups can register online,” Mai added.
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| Sean C. Mai – Intel Vietnam |
Meanwhile, the Viet Nam News newspaper reported that the week before, Da’ Nang began operating IBM’s intelligent operations centre to efficiently manage its water and transport systems. This centre will monitor water levels in the river to alert against flooding, whilst video screens and mobile apps will tell bus commuters when buses will arrive and in the future could alert them to how many passengers are on each bus.
Da Nang has 100 buses serving its population of one million and government officials want to discourage its growing middle class from buying cars by improving the quality of its public transport system.
Viet Nam News also reported that on 20 August, 2013, Da’ Nang city launched an IT infrastructure system, which includes a metropolitan-area network (MAN), wireless Internet, data centre and a centre for human training and research into IT applications. The project was funded by the World Bank and took seven years to complete.
Da’ Nang’s city-wide free WiFi service provides anytime, anywhere connectivity for citizens and tourists, including in homes, offices, schools, hospitals, bus and railway stations, the airport, shopping malls, entertainment centres tourist spots along its major streets, and also on its beaches. The network can serve up to 20,000 connections at a time.
In April 2013, the US-based Rocky Lai & Associates officially began construction of the 341 hectare Da’ Nang IT Park with a total investment of US$278 million. According to Intel’s Mai, investors, including foreign investors can register their business online. Rentals in Da’Nang are fairly low at US$10 per sq metre (about 93 cents US or RM3.05 per sq foot).
In comparison, according to a 2012 Cyberview brochure, average rentals in Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s intelligent city were between RM5 and RM6 per square foot. Its lowest rental of just under RM4 per sq foot were in Technology Park Malaysia and University Putra Malaysia – Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (UPM – MTDC) Technology Centre. The highest rental of over RM12 per sq foot was in the KL City Centre. Rentals ranged between RM5 and RM6 per square foot in most other MSC Malaysia cyber-centres in the Klang Valley.
Formerly home of the U.S. Air Force base from which B52 bombers rained bombs on Ha Noi and the former North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Da’ Nang is a coastal city mid way between the capital Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest by population and its commercial city.
One of Da’ Nang’s largest industries today is tourism and it’s one of the largest cities besides Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi, which are also developing concentrated information centres.
Affordable connectivity
As for public access, Intel’s Mai says that Vietnam’s broadband connectivity is provided by four state-owned operators, which together provide 3G coverage of 95% of its around 90 million population, at affordable rates ranging from the equivalent of US$2.50 to US$10 per month for 3Mbps speeds and 2GB monthly quota, which if exceeded, only the speed will be reduced for the rest of the month.
Viettel, wholly owned by the Ministry of Defence, is Vietnam’s largest mobile operator and provides 3G coverage of mountainous areas. Viettel began producing its own mobile phones in 2012, including smartphones and is also looking into developing its own TV.
ADSL costs US$10 per month and has about five million subscribers, though its hardly growing now, having been surpassed by 3G. Fibre is currently confined to urban areas and costs between US$30 and US$50 per month, for 16 to 20Mbps speed. Schools pay between US$20 and US$25 per month.
“Fifteen years ago, it cost US$2,000 for a 64Kbps leased line but now its very affordable,” said Mai.
In Part 2, we’ll get down to the details of Intel’s and its partners’ media briefing held in conjunction with the big data and cloud summit.
