Software as a Service Organizations HPC Forum Grid Computing in Business Financial Services: Network.com: $1/CPU-hr. Sun’s new Network.com delivers a massively powerful compute grid infrastructure and access to more than 20 high-performance computing (HPC) applications. With pay-per-use pricing at $1/CPU-hour, this unique service can change how research is conducted.

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Sun's new Network.com delivers on-demand apps for HPC

On March 13, Sun announced Network.com and the Network.com Application Catalog. Sun Inner Circle asked Kris Thorleifsson, Sun's group marketing manager for Network.com, to explain the new services and what they mean for users, ISVs, and developers.

Inner Circle (IC): What is Network.com?

Thorleifsson: Network.com enables communities of scientists and academics in life sciences, education, manufacturing, and other fields to easily accelerate innovation, and get research done faster and cheaper. It's an HPC supercomputing resource that delivers immediate online access to popular ISV and open source applications used by researchers in their daily work and provides access to a powerful compute grid. The portal gives users everything they need to conduct complex computational tasks and analysis to help speed scientific discovery. Just select the application, bring your data, and get results fast!

IC: Can you give us a few examples of some applications that are available in the catalog today?

Thorleifsson: The Network.com Application Catalog is loaded with more than 20 HPC applications for life sciences, academic, and manufacturing users to try at minimal cost, such as SimBioSys' eHiTS, Mathspec's Rational Numbers, BLAST, FASTA, Glimmer, T-Coffee, GROMACS, fastDNAml, ElmerSolver, Impact, OFELI, Blender, CalculiX, to name a few. Sun is working with its ISV partners and has engaged with numerous open source communities to grow the list of available applications.