Earlier this week, I moderated a panel about cloud computing success stories at the Cloud Computing Summit. One of the panelists was Chris Kemp, CTO at , who is responsible for the NASA Nebula Cloud Computing project at the NASA Ames facility in the Silicon Valley.

Nebula is rather unique. First, it is based completely on open source — proprietary vendors need not apply. Second, it is targeted toward researchers who need computational horsepower and lots of storage capacity for fixed amounts of time. Finally, Nebula is gaining lots of visibility as a cloud computing model that may be applicable across the Federal government.

Chris answered a lot of questions about Nebula, but my primary conclusions were:

1. Nebula is a viable desktop replacement. Chris stated that before Nebula, each researcher had his or her own dedicated Linux box. Aside from the capital cost, these boxes had to be maintained and secured which wasn’t always easy. In between projects, these systems also tended to sit idle or at the very least were under utilized. In this way, Nebula can be thought of as a cloud-based virtual Linux desktop infrastructure. New projects, employees, and workloads can be provided with central control.
2. Nebula’s success rides on fast cheap storage. No or NetApp boxes here, Nebula is built on racks of commodity disk drives. Why? Researchers consume a lot of storage but don’t need the value-added software capabilities of these enterprise-focused systems. Again, this illustrates the difference between a cloud computing infrastructure built for scientists, not for enterprises.
3. Nebula could have broad application. NASA isn’t the only agency focused on scientific research. In fact, when I last saw Chris Kemp, he was chatting with another panelist from Los Alamos lab. Nebula could also extend to academia and science-centric commercial industries.

In his final comments, Kemp also provided some sage advice. Cloud computing is a cultural change across the organization. He advised the audience to educate business people, purchasing managers, operations managers, etc. on cloud computing so they can prepare accordingly. Chris should know, NASA Nebula is quite an achievement.

Related posts:

1. Think Cloud, Think NASA’s Nebula
2. FedRAMP Seeks to Unify Cloud Computing Security Standards Across the U.S. Government
3. State of Michigan Rolls Out Cloud Computing Services in Easy-to-Consume Bites
4. Federal Government Remains Curious — but Skeptical — of Cloud Computing
5. What Types of Organizations are Investing in Cloud Computing?

Tags: Chris Kemp, NASA, Nebula