For those of you implementing the infrastructure of a cloud, often called IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service, one of the challenges can be “where to start?”. With the myriad of hw options and variety of software solutions finding a starting point can be daunting.

For example:

· What server configurations are optimal?

· How to structure the network?

· What is the optimal storage configuration?

· I really don't want to write this software , therefore, what is the cloud management stack that best suits my needs?

Assuming that cost reduction and/or agility are the reasons you are building a cloud (true for the vast majority of customers), then there is huge benefit from using a largely homogenous architecture: identical server, network, storage, and management configurations across the cloud implementation. This architecture addresses the maintenance aspects of the infrastructure (remove from service if it fails, replace when enough are out of service to justify a visit to the data center) as well as the operational aspect (no special cases). Getting to the point where workloads can be hosted in this environment requires effort but has a fairly quick payback once you complete the transition.

Even with this in mind, you still have to design the hardware infrastructure and then select a set of management tools.

Intel recognizes this need and has formed the Intel Cloud Builder program to help in this ‘getting started’ phase. If you are already well down the road to building a cloud, you will likely find the output from this program useful to understand the options available in the market.

Intel(r) Cloud Builder is a fairly simple program with a powerful output:

* using a defined hardware blueprint,

* using a cloud management software stack,

* run the combination on a Intel hosted cloud test bed,

* and document the results.

For more information, please go to http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4292;jsessionid=E0A2B15960F2DE39E35ADBA129D18F77.node5COMS

Billy Cox

Director, Cloud Strategy

Intel Software and Services

It's been an exciting month for the Academic Community, with the Intel Developer Forum at the center of it.  Both Intel CEO, Paul Ottelini and VP and General Manager of the Software and Solutions Group, Renee James highlighted the importance of Academia and this community specifically in their keynote addresses. With so much positive attention there has never been a better time to get more involved.  Share your experience, participate in our forums, or join a working group to help define the future of parallelism.  Visit us online to find out more.

In this Bulletin:

•       Moodle Updates

•        SW Tools Licenses: Renew/Subscribe now

•        Academic Community Highlights from IDF

•        Academic Blogs

•        Member Contributions

•        Teach Parallel! Discussion Series

•        PhD Fellowship Awards

•        Trainings and Events

-- New Course material

The Programming Fundamentals category is now one of the most active areas on the Intel Academic Community Moodle. Take a look for course modules to use in your classes. 

 You can now upload your own materials to share with the rest of the community, download modules for your own use, AND you can review and rate both Intel and community content. Please check it out and send us feedback on the new structure.

 -- Are your Tools Licenses up to date?

Don't let your licenses expire, take two minutes to fill out the demographic survey portion of your profile. This will automatically renew or subscribe you for the Intel Software Development Tools you need to teach Parallelism in the classroom, including the new Intel Parallel Studio license.  

 Update your information now (including suggestions for the best resources to help professors teach parallelism to undergraduates) and you'll be eligible to win a copy of The Art of Concurrency and a grand prize of a MyPocket XP*.  This promotion is for a limited time only so don't delay.  Update your profile now.

 -- Intel Academic Community at IDF 09

The Academic Community was out in force during the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Many of the classes, talks and panels were either taped or slides made available. Find the full list of IDF activities here.

 You can also find a series of special Teach Parallel interviews on the Academic Community's IDF show page.  Topics include Justin Rattner, Intel CTO, on future technologies and academia, Anwar Ghuloum on CT, Kathe Knobe on Intel® Concurrent Collections for parallelism and more.

 The first two Intel Software Network Black Belts were awarded at IDF to Dr. Matt Wolf and Professor Tom Murphy.  See a short interview with them here.

 -- New Blogs

The acquisition of Rapid Mind brought some people and technology to Intel. Check out the new blog by Michael McCool, formerly Chief Scientist and co-founder of RapidMind.  And of course, I encourage everyone to go to the Academic Community Blogs.  Of particular interest this month are the contributions of our own Dr. Clay Breshears and Dr. Michael Wrinn.

 -- Parallelism at the University of Southern California

Academic Community Member, Professor Jose Villeta describes how he was able to use the resources available on the Academic Community website to build a course for both the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments of USC.  Read about it here.  Do you have an experience using the parallelism course materials or in setting up your own courses that you can share?  Let us know!

 -- Teach Parallel!

Don't miss the next Teach Parallel! Episode: Developing a Curriculum for Parallelism with Walter F. Tichy, Professor of Computer Science at the University Karlsruhe, Germany. Oct, 20, 2009 10 AM PDT. More info on all Teach parallel shows is available here.

 -- Rising Stars in Technology
Nine Fellowships in Software Technology and Design have been awarded by the Intel Ph.D. Fellowship program to some of best students from top universities around the world. Find out about their research topics.  Read more about the program and this year's winners.

 Training and Events

November 16-20, 2009, SuperComputing 2009, Portland, OR, USA.  Academic Community Members can get FREE passes.  Contact Paul Steinberg. 

All the best,

Paul Steinberg

Intel Academic Community Manager

www.intel.com/software/academic

Intel Software Network at Supercomputing 09!  Visit Intel at Booth #1935, and the Intel Academic Program in the SC Education Booth (Lobby C).

• In the Company of Friends, by Tom Murphy.  (Your invitation to the Panel Discussion, November 17th, 5:30pm, room C124)
• Subscribe to the Intel Academic Community blog RSS feed.
• See list of Intel Software Network bloggers at end of this article.

Intel Theater Presentations:

Join us in our in-booth theater (booth #1935) at Supercomputing to hear free presentations throughout the show!
Download the Theater Schedule PDF (427 KB)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Here are a few of our scheduled sessions:

TUTORIAL: S03: A "Hands-on" Introduction to OpenMP by 
Presenters: Larry Meadows Intel Corporation, Mark Bull Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, and  Tim Mattson Intel Corporation.
Sunday 8:30AM to 5:30PM
Room TBD

PANEL: Teach Parallel: Developing a Curriculum for Parallelism
Moderator:  Tom Murphy, Contra Costa College
Panelists: Wen Mei Hwu (University of Illinois), Dr. Bob Chesebrough (Intel Corporation) , Jim Larus (Microsoft), Academic recomended by, NVIDIA , Academic recommended by AMD
Tuesday 5:00PM to 6:30PM

BoF:  Breaking the Barriers to Parallelization at Mach Speed
Primary Session Leader:  Ronald W. Green  (Intel Corporation)
Secondary Session Leader: Niraj Srivastava (Interactive Supercomputing Inc.)
Tuesday,  12:15PM - 01:15PM
Room D139-D140

BOF: Simplify Your Data Parallelization Woes with Ct: C++ for Throughput Computing
Primary Session Leader: Rita E. Turkowski (Intel Corporation)
Secondary Session Leader: Sanjay Goil (Intel Corporation)
Birds-of-a-Feather Session
Wednesday, 05:30PM - 07:00PM
Room D133-134

BOF:  OpenMP: Evolving in an Age of Extreme Parallelism
Primary Session Leader: Larry Meadows  (Intel Corporation)
Secondary Session Leaders:  Barbara Chapman (University of Houston),  Nawal Copty (Sun Microsystems)

Wednesday, 5:30-7:00PM
Room PB255

PANEL: Preparing the World for Ubiquitous Parallelism
Moderator: Matthew Wolf (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Panelists: Benedict Gaster (AMD), Kevin Goldsmith (Adobe Systems Inc.), Tom Murphy (Contra Costa College), Steven Parker (NVIDIA),  Michael Wrinn (Intel Corporation) 
Friday, 10:30AM - 12:00PM
Room PB252

The complete list of Intel panels, talks, BOFs and events can be downloaded: Download the Intel talk schedule, PDF (427 KB)

Intel Software Network Attendees at Supercomputing 2009 (partial list):

• Paul Steinberg, Academic Community Manager (Pauls' blog, @psteinb on Twitter)
• Aaron Tersteeg, Parallel Programming Community Manager (Aaron's blog, @Tersteeg on Twitter)
• Arti Gupta, Visual Computing Community Manager (Arti's blog, @artigupta on Twitter)
• James Reinders, Director Marketing and Business, Software Development Products (James' blog, @Reinders on Twitter)
• Michael Wrinn, Manager, Innovative Software Education (Michael's blog)
• Scott Apeland, Director, Developer Network Organization (Scott's blog)
• Michael McCool, Software Architect (Michael's blog, @michaelmccool on Twitter)
• Bob Chesebrough, Technical Course Architect, (Bob's blog)
• Jennifer Teal, Marketing Manager (Jen's blog, @jenvteal on Twitter)
• Bev Bachmayer, Intel Academic Community Europe Region (Bev's blog)
• Zander Sprague, Intel Academic Community, Americas Region (Zander's blog, @ztsprague on Twitter)
• Jerry Baugh, Technical Content Manager
• Josh Bancroft, Intel Software Network TV (Josh's blog, @jabancroft on Twitter)
• Maryann Iannitti, Manager, Marketing Programs (Maryann's blog)
• Bill Pearson, Manager, Intel Software Network (Bill's blog, @billpearson on Twitter)
• Amy Barton, New Media Communications (Amy's blog, YouTube, @amybarton on Twitter)

• Matthew Wolf, Georgia Tech University (Dr. Wolf's blog)
• Tom Murphy, Contra Costa College (Dr. Murphy's blog, @wolfmurphy on Twitter)

Beginning with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) release 3.0, Intel introduced support for the industry standard WS-Management protocol. This allows management software to use a combination of standard CIM classes, as well as Intel specific classes, to perform Intel® AMT operations. Support for the WS-Management specification enables software developers and IT professionals to leverage off-the-shelf infrastructure and tools to interact with Intel® AMT platforms. But what about using WS-Management based software in conjunction with Intel® AMT platforms older than release 3.0? Intel has shipped many platforms that can only support a firmware version of 2.6 or below. Can WS-Management based software be used with these older Intel platforms?

Enter the Translator

The Intel® WS-Management Translator makes it possible for WS-Management based software to be used in conjunction with Intel® AMT platforms older than version 3.0. Using the translator, management software can send WS-Management commands to the translator, the translator will in turn perform the equivalent operation on an Intel® AMT device using a proprietary SOAP based protocol understood by all Intel® AMT platforms.

Download The Intel® WS-Management Translator for vPro™ Processor Technology

Key features in the Translator 1.1 (build 568)

• Validation with SCCM SP2
• Enhanced legacy support for wireless profiles, 8021.x profiles, and 3party data storage
• Enhanced Kerberos authentication and Kerberos ticket handling
• You can upgrade from existing builds by using this VB Script or it can be installed on its own.

Download Source Code for The Intel® WS-Management Translator for vPro™ Processor Technology

Genscript

Genscript is a tool for activating Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) features in a scriptable environment. Genscript generates Visual Basic® scripts that can be applied to a single machine or many machines. These scripts programmatically can activate various Intel AMT features using Windows Remote Management (WinRM). Genscript can also be used in conjunction with the Intel WS-Management Translator to perform initial setup of Intel AMT clients and programmatically activate features on AMT clients that don’t natively support WinRM. Intel AMT clients that are already setup, and natively support the WS-Management interface, will not require the assistance of the Intel WS-Management translator software.

Download Genscript for The Intel® WS-Management Translator for vPro™ Processor Technology

Additional Information

• Ajith Illendula's Blog post - WS-Management Translator for Intel AMT
• Frequently Asked Questions
• WS-Management and Intel® Active Management Technology
• Issuing a Web Server Certificate with IIS
• Configuring the Translator for use with SCCM/SP1