Since the project started, it became obvious that even extremely heterogeneous applications can be operated in a very stable, highly available and fail-safe way in the Frankfurt Cloud. As a result there was not a single problem or crash in the operating period, and currently the site is operating at up to 80% utilization.
The site has also had a particularly high rate of adoption by users from the scientific field, due to high flexibility in resource reservation. Project participation will also be extended to other companies in the foreseeable future.
Frankfurt Cloud was launched on 1 October 2010 and is home to many different research applications of the University of Frankfurt. The spectrum ranges from economic issues in the area of financial risk management to simulations and the understanding of stellar explosions (supernovae). These high-capacity applications are to explore the capacity limits of the cloud on the one hand and to examine and evaluate various requirements on the other hand. The primary goal is to provide reliable, flexible and robust cloud services to highly fragmented user groups in the long term. Respectively, various billing and access models are already being tested via a self-service portal.
“Frankfurts data hub was ideal for the establishment of the Frankfurt Cloud, as it not only provides an excellent infrastructure, but also offers access to 150 different carriers and ISPs. These attributes are part of our cloud hub approach, and the Frankfurt Cloud’ test area is the first step to establish these structures in the long run,” said Peter Knapp, Managing Director Interxion Germany.
“For Deutsche Bank the establishment of the Frankfurt Cloud’ is an ideal test area to examine open technology issues in a real setting, including implementation, capacity management, billing and pricing models as well as numerous legal, regulatory and safety issues. It is obvious that benefit-oriented technologies will prevail, and it is to the best advantage if you can gain experience at an early stage and actively contribute to the development,”said Dr. h. c. Hermann-Josef Lamberti, COO and board member of Deutsche Bank AG.
“In the past, the cloud computing discussion was always largely theoretical as for concrete applications, however, there were only few. With the project Frankfurt Cloud’ we will clarify current questions and various requirements of users and their behaviour during self-directed supply of capacity resources. In addition, we will deal with the questions: Who gets access to the data? How can privacy be secured? How can data security be guaranteed for simultaneous use of the infrastructure by several customers? The stress tests, on the other hand, are to provide clues on how to optimize the cloud in terms of performance and reliability,” said Prof. Dr. Clemens Jochum, Goethe University Frankfurt.
“The ‘Frankfurt Cloud’ is an ideal complement to our internal cloud. With respect to this, we try to build a hybrid cloud’ for our users. If the resources at GSI do not suffice, the requirements are to be passed transparently to external clouds. With the Frankfurt Cloud’ we were successful at once, despite a different cloud-based software. After high-capacity simulations for radiation protection and calculations from theoretical nuclear physics, we will embed the Cloud to the grid for the ALICE experiment at CERN, said Dr. Peter Malzacher, GSI.