Starting Immediately, Businesses Large and Small Can Easily and Quickly Access
the Combined Computing Power of Nearly 8,000 Gateway(R) PCs
POWAY, Calif., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gateway, Inc. (NYSE: GTW)
today unveiled its Gateway Processing On Demand(SM) service, a new offering
for companies of all sizes requiring cost-effective on-demand access to a
large source of computing power. The Gateway Processing On Demand service
backed by the United Devices(TM) Alliance MetaProcessor(TM) platform is
immediately available to deliver on-demand grid computing to organizations in
a variety of industries, including life sciences, geosciences, nanosciences,
entertainment, financial services and government.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020930/LAM050LOGO )
The alliance leverages the power of Gateway's nearly 8,000
high-performance PCs located in Gateway(R) stores across the nation and United
Devices' vast experience with distributed computing software and services. It
will provide improved ROI by enabling customers to reduce processing time for
distributable applications, decrease or eliminate capital expenditure on high
performance computing equipment, and align internal resources to their core
business. The new offering gives smaller companies access to a large
computing source that would be cost prohibitive to build in-house, and
supplements internal resources for larger organizations.
"Gateway is doing what we do best -- making cutting-edge technology
available to mainstream customers, and making it easy to understand and take
advantage of," said Bob Burnett, senior VP and chief technology officer,
Gateway, Inc. "Increasingly, our business customers need access to serious
computing power but can't always afford to purchase the hardware. With our
Gateway Processing On Demand, they literally access the computing power only
when they need it. This will save money and resources, helping them meet
their business objectives more quickly and cost-effectively."
Burnett added, "This is also a very strategic move. The Gateway
Processing On Demand service is a great example of how Gateway is leveraging
its fixed cost structure to utilize assets that were previously untapped."
Customers will find the Gateway Processing On Demand service running
United Devices' Alliance MetaProcessor platform simple and easy to use,
requiring no additional investment in IT. Using a customer specific web
services interface, the client can submit job requests, get real-time status
updates, and pick up results when the job is complete.
A recent pilot with Inpharmatica, a well-known drug discovery research
firm, benchmarked the performance of the Gateway-United Devices distributed
computing offering (running on 3,000 PCs) with the capabilities of an in-house
dedicated computing cluster.
Pat Leach, CIO of Inpharmatica, stated, "Computing on demand is something
we have been seeking for some time, in order to fulfill unanticipated
increases in demand. I see this capability as important in cost management
and flexibility. The pilot was very successful across several criteria,
including security, reliability, ease-of-use, speed and cost. We look forward
to working with Gateway and United Devices to develop solutions for our high
performance computing needs which underpin much of our drug discovery
efforts."
The on-demand grid can produce more than 14 TFLOPs (trillion floating
point operations per second) at peak capacity, greater than the second fastest
supercomputer in the world today as ranked by http://www.TOP500.org .
Ahmar Abbas, managing director at Grid Technology Partners, commented,
"The unleashing of this tremendous compute capacity, available to any company,
at any time and in any slice will dramatically transform the way companies
operate. Gateway's service not only empowers IT managers to provide their
internal and external customers a level of service that was previously
unimaginable but also liberates legions of engineers and scientists, from
constantly scavenging for resources, to develop better products, faster and
cheaper."
According to Ed Hubbard, CEO of United Devices, "Our customers realize
that on-demand computing allows them to better utilize readily available
computing resources which will translate to significant improvements in
computational speed and in the quality of results from high performance
applications. They understand that our solutions and expertise can shorten
the amount of time it takes to get products to market, and save money while
doing it."
Gateway and United Devices utilize advanced technology to provide a secure
grid implementation. United Devices' Alliance MetaProcessor platform protects
the network with data encryption, firewalls and intrusion prevention methods.
Additionally, Gateway has patented technology that provides security at the PC
level.
Also, because Gateway is constantly refreshing its retail store PCs with
the most current technology, the power of the grid increases over time, unlike
purchased computing assets that depreciate and become obsolete in two years.
The service is competitively priced based on processor-hours used to
complete application runs and does not require any long-term or minimum-usage
commitments.
For more information, go to http://gateway.com/work/services/pod.shtml or
http://www.ud.com/alliance .
About Gateway
Gateway, Inc. (NYSE: GTW), a personal technology company, improves
people's lives through a combination of the latest and best hardware,
communication tools, applications, training and service, all offered with a
custom financing package. The company takes a localized approach, utilizing
its Web site, call centers and nationwide network of Gateway retail stores to
build direct relationships with consumers, small and medium businesses and
government and education institutions. In 2001, Gateway's products and
services received more than 45 awards and accolades and the company was ranked
number one in repurchase brand loyalty for PCs(1). For more information,
visit Gateway's Web site at http://www.gateway.com .
About United Devices
United Devices is a leading provider of distributed computing software and
services. United Devices' MetaProcessor platform is used to aggregate compute
resources on a network to create an enterprise grid capable of running a wide
range of high-performance computing applications in life sciences,
geosciences, financial services, and other industries. For more information,
visit the United Devices Web site http://www.ud.com .
(1) Source: MetaFacts Technology User Profile, 2001 Annual Edition. Based
on a survey of 6,799 home PC owners.
SOURCE Gateway, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.gateway.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020930/LAM050LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, +1-888-776-6555 or +1-212-782-2840
CONTACT:
Lisa Emard of Gateway, Inc., +1-858-848-3426,
lisa.emard@gateway.com; or Vanessa McMillan of United Devices,
Inc., +1-512-692-4069, vanessa@ud.com
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