Cloud Computing Solutions for Health Institutions

Not long ago, computers were only used by scientists and government agents to complete complex calculations or to share complicated information. Computers are now part of everyday life. The technology continues to raise the bar on computer capabilities, making life easier and more efficient. The healthcare industry is one area that is greatly benefiting from computer technology. Healthcare IT news often reports on cloud computing and how it is helping health institutions.

MIAMI BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 16: Dr. Klara Gers... 

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Cloud computing is when multiple devices have access to the same information on demand via a computer network. The devices can be laptop or desktop computers, tablets or Smartphones. These devices only require minimal software because everything needed is contained in the cloud or network. This new form of computing is proving to be very useful in the healthcare field.

Healthcare IT news articles discuss the improvements to the entire healthcare industry with the use of cloud computing. New medical devices include sensors that send patient data directly into the cloud where doctors and nurses can pay closer attention to a patient’s condition. Cloud computing also allows doctors in different locations to consult on one patient, so the patient receives the best treatment possible in the quickest amount of time.

Cloud computing not only helps deliver quality medical assistance, but it is also cost efficient because the cloud is accessed with a small computer or handheld device. The technology also addresses the challenges of obtaining information from medical devices quickly and efficiently, so medical professionals can analyze and process a patient’s data and immediately begin effective treatment.

With cloud computing, medical professionals will continue to improve healthcare.

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Use Inexpensive Technology to Create Your Own Supercomputer

The first computer clusters were not created by a major company like IBM. They were created by major companies’ customers. They began to create networks, or clusters of computers to improves processing and storage space. In essence, these were homemade supercomputers. Today anyone can use inexpensive technology to create a supercomputer. All you have to do is browse the internet for the various ways that people are making grids and clusters to achieve their personal computing goals.

Probably the most prominent home supercomputer systems would be those created by gamers. They can literally buy a computer off the shelf at any retail store and create a cluster with all of their old computers. This is often more effective and cost efficient than buying or building one big machine to do it all. There is even experimentation with using WiFi to connect a cluster of computers. Depending on the age of some of the hardware, the gamer may use Microsoft or Linux. Many feel Linux is the better choice because it still runs with older hardware. It’s also an open source product, so there is a vibrant support community and very well documented technical sheets and support. If the Windows operating systems in the cluster are the same or within a generation or so of each other, then the cluster can be created, too.

The key is to build a computer environment that performs like one computer that would be very expensive to purchase. Existing and super inexpensive hardware can do the same thing, and it’s easy enough to replace one component or add one component versus buying your own “supercomputer.”

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A Simple Explanation of Cluster Computing

At first, trying to grasp the concept of cluster computing can be a bit difficult for those new to the idea. If that is your case, it is not your fault, and you are not alone. We all suffer from occassional information overload, and it seems to put a big stop sign right in front of our brains. Maybe this simple explanation of computer clustering will help.

We have a wonderful election system in the United States, but now and then something goes wrong and the elections don’t go as smoothly as hoped. There have been occasional incidences in some cities in which it was learned that the voting machines were faulty. This put quite a hardship on the poll workers because that meant that all of the votes had to be counted by hand.

Now, just imagine if there was only one available poll worker. It would take that worker an undetermined amount of time to count all the votes. It would be unfathomable to hope to get the job done in due time.

The way it was handled was that many workers united to count the votes. This made the process much faster, and the work was eventually completed. It was completed much quicker than if one person did all of the counting alone. That is how cluster computing works.

If it were a computer performing the task, one could have eventually processed all of the data. However, many of them linked together make the job more thorough and much faster. If twenty computers are used, the work can be done at least twenty times faster.

With any luck, that will clear things up a bit for you. You should now put your new knowledge to good use. If your company is set up for cluster computing, when you go back to the office tomorrow, the first thing you should do is tell you coworkers that they can all work faster because you are there.

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Open Source Technology Helps Improve Computer Clusters

Computer clusters and cluster grids have plenty of challenges. Even though the idea helps a group of smaller computers function as a more powerful computer, the very nature of networking various machines that may or may not be in the control of a single individual means that there are just more hard drives and operating systems for something to go wrong with. It can easily be said that open source technology helps improve computer clusters and grids.

This means that most of the participating computers need to have Linux components. These may be software programs, blog or web hosting sites, or the actual operating system of the computers in the cluster. Linux is meant to be accessible to anyone, so many Linux based programs will ask users for permission to gather information about the program on their machine. This is how open source is defined. By doing this, programmers can study problems and make improvements as needed. There is a level of trust needed in an open source environment, so many fail safes must also be in place. If a outage does occur, Linux can be restored without having to re-purchase the softwares or systems. Linux can also make corrections and push updates without slowing down a computer.  This keeps the cluster working as efficiently as possible.

Certainly, many computers on a grid may be Windows based. That’s O.K. Linux is compatible with Windows. This keeps the cluster from having to be exclusive to one system, and therefore, makes more information available to the other computers on the grid. More companies are recognizing that Linux technology is good for cluster computing.

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Computer Grid Technology Solves Some of the World’s Biggest Problems

One of the fastest ways to come up with solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems is to share information, at a rapid pace, anytime from anywhere. The World Community Grid does just that. It is a cluster of computers that are dedicated to helping solve problems like smallpox, HIV, cancer, hunger and clean energy. By using the idle time of participating computers, the grid can constantly run tasks that help match up information that will be useful to the scientists who are dedicated to these issues. In this way, computer grid technology solves some the world’s biggest problems.

An example would be how the World Community Grid was used to advance smallpox research. By browsing participating computers, the grid was able to match subjects with trials and hone down a huge process to 45 ideal participants. This happened in a small fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise. For those who were skeptical about a computer grid accurately contributing to research, all of that changed when IBM’s Watson won its Jeopardy match. It demonstrated just how fast a computer on a cluster grid can come up with the right answers. After the big win, registrations for the World Community Grid went up 700 percent. Computer Grid Technology is now positioned to help many organizations accurately speed up the problem solving processes needed to advance the quality of life on earth.

The drawback to this kind of grid technology is that it can slow down a participating computer. Even though the program is running in the background, it is possible for it to significantly affect the CPU usage on a machine at times.  It has also been known to occasionally over heat a computer, too. However, there is a fix for that.  Over all, grid technology and science are great partners when the problems we need to solve are critical.

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Gamers Use PC Clusters

Gamers are always wanting faster and more powerful computers. Their games use a huge amount of memory and pure operating muscle, so a single computer can become obsolete pretty fast as the games become bigger and better. For the serious gamer, this situation can burn up a budget pretty fast. The solution is to hang onto those old towers because gamers use PC clusters to create the optimum game situation.  If a gamer is a fan of Microsoft, he may continue to buy computers off the shelf, as the more powerful operating systems are introduced, but he’s going to hang onto his old computer.

The old computer will likely have an operating system that is compatible with the new computer, so the gamer can begin to cluster his older machines with the new machine. Maybe an older machine will be used for storage. Sometimes, the machine itself will no longer be operable, so the gamer will simply salvage the hard drive and use it as an external drive with a newer computer. As long as machines are compatible, the cluster can work. Some gamers are even experimenting with using a WiFi device to create clusters. If it works, it can be more space efficient. However, this kind of network may take more patience and troubleshooting.

Cluster computers are weaker computers that are networked to create a super computer, so gamers can be good testing sources for new ideas and trials in cluster computintg. Many find the challenge of creating a small cluster to be as fun as the games themselves. If you are replacing your PC, instead of recycling it, you might advertise it on a message board or Craigslist as a good computer for a gamer’s cluster.

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Types of Cluster Computing

2 node High Availability Cluster network diagram

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The term cluster computing or computer clusters may sound like a new computer craze, but it has been around for a while. Cluster computing is the technique of linking several computers together through a network, typically a local area network. This provides the advantage of parallel processing power of each networked computer.

Cluster computing is heavily used in businesses because linking many computers together can provide the same processing power as one super computer. Many businesses need the power of a super computer, but can not afford the price. To work around that, they simply create computer clusters to generate the needed processing power. There are few different types of computer clusters.

Load-Balancing Clusters

Load-balancing clusters work by routing all the work through a load-balancing front-end computer, which then distributes the workload between the remaining active computers. When a few computers are dedicated to manage the workload of a cluster, limited processing power is optimized. This is a great option for companies with limited IT budgets.

High-Performance Clusters

High-performance clusters are made specifically to exploit the parallel processing power of multiple computers. This is the type of computer cluster that is best used when the computers need to perform functions that require the computers to talk to each other as they perform their tasks. An example is when calculation results from one computer will affect the results from another. Have you ever heard of the Seti@Home Project? This is a great example of a high-performance cluster. The project consists of over 5 million home computers, volunteered by their owners, which devote processing power to analyze data from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope.

High Availability Clusters

High availability clusters ensure constant access to all service applications. The clusters are specifically made to maintain redundant computers that can be backup systems in case of failure. The minimum number of computers in a high availability cluster is two: one computer is active and one is redundant.

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The Benefits of Computer Clusters

Computer clusters are a way for companies to link many computers together, typically through a local area network, to generate the same processing power as a super computer, but with a lot cheaper price tag. With computers being such an integral part of business these days, paired with a poor economy and small IT budgets, computer clusters are a great way for businesses to get the processing power they need. There are several other benefits to using computer clusters.

Improved Technology

As computer clusters have been developing and evolving, so has networking technology. And, as the technology has been getting better and better, the price has gone down. This makes the technology more affordable. Computer cluster technology involves using a single virtual local area network, which treats each computer as a node. Data is passed through the network, without any information bottlenecked between the computers or nodes.

Awesome Processing Power

The processing power of a high performance computer cluster is the same as a mainframe computer. With many computers in a cluster, the processing power may even exceed that of a mainframe.

Cost Efficient

Purchasing several good quality computers such as HP desktops at once, is less expensive than buying one supercomputer. The average PC today is a lot more powerful than the first mainframe computers. This means, companies can get the same or even greater processing power by using several desktop computers instead of a mainframe computer, and it is a lot cheaper.

Practically Fail Proof

When one computer in a cluster fails, those operations can simply go to another computer, which ensures there is no interruption in service. When a mainframe computer goes down, the entire system will stop working.

Expandability

Many people feel that the best benefit of utilizing computer clusters is that they can be expanded easily by adding additional computers to the network. A mainframe computer has a fixed capacity and will only be able to handle so much power at a time.

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The Advantages of Cluster Computing and Internet Computing

Companies are always looking for ways to save money and be more efficient. This has inspired them to look at some ideas regarding Internet and cluster computing that have enlightened them to some good possibilities. Many of these companies are starting to make good use of computers that are inactive.

Internet computing is essentially using the Web to access a database to process information. The processing is done via a software program that uses the processor of an otherwise dormant computer. A unit that is used for work for eight hours per day, and then shut down for sixteen hours, can effectively use those sixteen hours to run tasks and perform calculations.

Internet computing allows for computers all around the world to be logged into a database to perform this work without the need of a huge network. The network is, in effect, the Web. All of the processors working with that database are essentially the computer cluster.

Companies and organizations using this kind of system include colleges, government agencies and private institutions. Much of the work being done involves research and the processing and analysis of research data. Some of these organizations are for profit; some of them are nonprofit.

It is common for the nonprofit organizations to use private desktop computers to do their Internet computing. Some of them do interesting and important scientific research that intrigues some people who sympathize with the cause of these groups.

Because of this, those people may volunteer to allow their processors to be used during their machine’s normal down time. This cuts a lot of corners for these organizations by saving them money and an extraordinary amount of time that it would normally take to do this kind of work.

As fast as knowledge already grows, it makes a person wonder what is on the horizon. With the help of Internet and cluster computing, we will see enormous advances in the fields of science and medicine in our lifetimes.

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Deciding Upon Cluster Computing or a Mainframe Computer

If you are a business owner, or just starting up a new business, you certainly know by now that you have a lot of decisions to make. Any choices that you make now can affect your company for years to come. Choosing the right IT setup is one of those. If you plan on having more than a few workers and doing some intense processing with your computers, you will have to decide whether to go with cluster computing or a mainframe computer.

If your place of business is just a simple office with a few employees, you may not have a need for high performance computing. Maintaining a simple database, running a few software programs, sending e-mails and having a small network is not anything that a traditional setup cannot handle.

On the other hand, if your industry requires intensive data mining, the handling of statistics and heavy number crunching, you will need the appropriate processing power. Both kinds written about in this article can provide that kind of performance.

One difference between the mainframe and the cluster is the cost. The former is considerably more expensive. The latter is more of a “pay as you go” system, meaning that you only add what you need now and can add more later as you need the additional performance.

You could say that opting for a mainframe computer is more of a commitment. That’s not to say that it is bad, just that it is expensive. Cluster computing is less costly because it is based on traditional desktop computers that are linked together to combine their performance.

If your company is going to be massive and grow quickly, a mainframe computer may be the only way for you to go. On the other hand, if you expect growth but at a slower pace, you best option may be cluster computing. That way you can add more processing power as your company needs it.

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