Features:
GOLDFARB AT IBM: INTERVIEW & VENDOR COMMENTARY
by Alan Beck, Editor-in-Chief
 Recently HPCwire reported that Debra Goldfarb, IDC's internationally-renown
Group Vice President for Worldwide Systems & Servers, took up a new position
with IBM. To illuminate the significance of this move, HPCwire conducted an
exclusive interview with Goldfarb and received commentaries from some vendor
representatives.
INTERVIEW
HPCwire: Why did you leave IDC for IBM?
GOLDFARB: I spent 16 years at IDC. I loved every bit of it -- the work, the
people -- and I learned a lot. Obviously, I felt that there would have to be
something pretty extraordinary going on for me to make a move like this. IBM
was forming the Deep Computing organization and given its scope and profile
within the organization, it seemed really exciting.
I had reached a point where I longed to be on the doing side rather than the
watching side. So the time was right, and an amazing opportunity presented
itself.
I have not severed my ties with IDC. We still collaborate on a number of
efforts.
HPCwire: What is your title at IBM? What are your duties?
GOLDFARB: I'm the Vice President of Strategy and Products for the IBM's Deep
Computing. I work for David Turek, who runs Deep Computing, and he, in turn,
reports to Mark Shearer. The group is growing rapidly as we demonstrate the
benefits of Deep Computing over the traditional ways of thinking about high
performance computing.
It's important to note that Deep Computing cuts across all brands and includes
all disciplines where HPC is paramount--traditional HPC, Business
Intelligence, Digital Media, Life Sciences, PLM, and the computational finance
sector. Our job is to thoroughly understand these sectors, so we can build
and bring to market products and solutions that support their ongoing workload
and business requirements.
HPCwire: How do you resolve the issue of proprietary information that was
shared when you were vendor-neutral?
GOLDFARB: There is really no problem here. IDC's business has always been
built on the highest levels of integrity. When I worked there, it was
customary to meet with competing vendors within narrow time frames. We always
carefully segmented what was appropriate to talk about. I personally have an
extremely strict regimen about what can be mentioned in a given context and
what can't -- and IBM is also very ethical and respectful on this issue.
Indeed, they have shown remarkable sensitivity whenever such topics are
touched upon.
HPCwire: What is the relationship between Deep Computing and On Demand
Computing?
GOLDFARB: Supercomputing or Deep Computing On Demand is one piece IBM's larger
On Demand vision. Deep Computing On Demand offers a single delivery mechanism
for supercomputing that goes across all types of workloads and can run on a
range of server architectures. Life sciences and petroleum exploration, where
we are seeing significant near-term interest, are only two examples where
there is a huge interest for this type of offering.
HPCwire: Given the state of platform interoperability and application
development, is Deep Computing On Demand merely a euphemism for outsourcing
HPC tasks?
GOLDFARB: No. Supercomputing On Demand (SOD) is focused on the creation of a
set of service offerings to more effectively and efficiently manage a
customer's infrastructure. We hear of many, many examples where customers
over-build their data-center to accomodate variable peak loads. Supercomputing
on demand helps rationalize this problem by off-loading the "peak" demands to
the SOD center, and building the internal infrastructure to manage the more
predicatable and moderate requirements. This reduces the capital expense,
raises the efficiency and improves the total cost of ownership metrics.
HPCwire: What's on the horizon for Deep Computing?
GOLDFARB: Deep Computing is a concept which is very broad and far reaching in
terms of the markets and types of customers it will touch. While some of the
most ambitious HPC work still takes place in government labs, the potential
for Deep Computing breakthroughs in new commercial markets, such as drug and
product design, simulation and animation, financial and weather modeling, is
growing rapidly. The Deep Computing team aims to combine IBM's industry
knowledge with high-performance software and hardware using open standards,
such as Grid protocols, helping customers in industry gain insight and
transform their business.
VENDOR COMMENTARY
HPCwire received several commentaries concerning Goldfarb's move. Some vendors
were not willing to go on record, but those who did respond expressed similar
viewpoints as the two commentaries listed below.
"I've known Debra for about 15 years, and she has been a significant voice and
analyst for the HPC industry. She understands this market and has been one of
the best at making sense of the research and data. I hate to see her go to a
major competitor, but I wish her well." -- Steve Joachims, Marketing and Solutions Director, HPTC Division, Hewlett-Packard
"Deb's an important figure in the industry; she's very knowledgeable about
every vendor in the HPC space, has keen insight and is of course a wonderful
person on top of all that. I am confident that she won't use her non-public
information about IBM competition in an inappropriate manner. In terms of IDC,
they clearly have some great folks there and a lot of bench strength in HPC,
in particular Earl Joseph and Chris Willard. So while it's certainly a loss
for them, I have full confidence in their abilities". -- Greg Estes, VP, Corporate Marketing, SGI
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