The Hindu Business Line : IBM’s virtual computing initiative in India next year

Bangalore, Nov. 15 IBM’s University and Innovation division will launch its virtual computing initiative in India early next year. With this, a professor can access servers whenever necessary via the Web.

Beginning with three universities — Kerala’s Amrita University, University of Hyderabad and a college in Lucknow — this backbone will provide professors and students across India access to high-end computers.

High-end servers

Thousands of dollars worth of high-end blade servers will be made available through the programme.

Each server allows 25 users (professors and students) to work on ‘heavy’ applications that draw on computational resources. There has been no government funding in the initiative.

These servers can be used to launch CAD/CAM (computer aided design) applications taught to mechanical engineers or DB2 for database training.

“It will support day-to-day classroom needs but also could be accessed by a student who needs to work later at night. Research is also possible over this infrastructure,” Mr Louis Masi, Director, Worldwide University & Innovation, IBM Inc, told Business Line on Wednesday.

The firm expects hundreds of open research projects to be spawned next year by connecting professors and researchers worldwide through this initiative.

“Depending on network bandwidth and scalability of infrastructure, we expect to connect more universities and foster more research and innovation,” said Mr Amol B. Mahamuni, Program Director, IBM India University Relations.

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