Cluster Computing:

GALILEO GENOMICS USE IBM LINUX CLUSTER TO SPEED UP RESEARCH

IBM announced that Galileo Genomics has chosen IBM servers to run its laboratory, clinical and business applications. This standardization will improve efficiencies for laboratory operations and research efforts.

Galileo has chosen IBM eServer xSeries to run business applications such as e- mail and file sharing, and mission-critical applications such as its Laboratory Instrument Management System, which controls laboratory work flow, robotics and data management.

Additionally, Galileo is piloting a cluster of IBM's eServer xSeries running Linux to analyze genetic data from the Quebec Founder Population, a homogenous population of six million distantly related Quebec residents, to identify genes that cause common diseases such as diabetes, schizophrenia and asthma. Discoveries will lead to targeted drug therapies that treat the root genetic cause of disease rather than the symptoms, as most drugs do today.

The calculations required to help pinpoint disease genes are computationally intensive and require massive amounts of reliable computing power. Previously, Galileo's researchers would divide the computational jobs and execute them on dedicated servers, manually combining the results in a final step. Clustering technology now allows Galileo to automatically distribute processing amongst all servers, increasing efficiency and capacity utilization. The Linux cluster is a cost-effective way for Galileo to shorten its processing and discovery time.

"Galileo has grown from a staff of 15 to over 80 employees in two years. This has presented us with various challenges, one of them being an IT infrastructure built on 'white box' servers that had reached its capacity to support our discovery process," said Jean-François Lévesque, Senior Director of IT, Galileo Genomics. "We chose IBM technology for several reasons -- local support, functionality, pricing and reputation all playing a factor. But the most important reason was our need for robust servers to reliably run applications 24 hours a day with minimal downtime."

"IBM has a long history of working with innovative life science companies to ensure they have the technology they need to successfully complete research," said Sal Causi, Business Development executive, IBM Life Sciences, Canada. "Galileo is doing cutting edge research in genetic discovery. Reliability and flexibility are critical so they can continue to expand their capacity to process scientific data at the rapid rate required for genomics research. Ultimately this will accelerate their gene discovery process and shorten their time to market."

About IBM

IBM Life Sciences brings together IBM resources, from research, services and e-business expertise to data and storage management and high-performance computing to offer new solutions for the life sciences market, including biotechnology, genomic, e-health, pharmaceutical, and agri-science industries. The fastest way to get more information about IBM Life Sciences is through its Web site, http://www.ibm.com/lifesciences.