Discussion with Jason Stowe of Cycle Computing

I recently posted Undewhelmed by Hyperbole in response to a press release issued by Cycle Computing. Jason Stowe, CEO, of Cycle Computing was kind enough to talk with me to help me understand what his company was saying. Thanks for being such a good sport, Jason!.

It appears that we were in violent agreement on much of what I posted.  He agreed that organizations typically will add new technology on as add-needed basis rather than as a wholesale replacement.  He went on to say that the advent of graphics processing unit (GPU) based systems being made available as part of Amazon's EC2 service was the type of technological advance that would cause some organizations to consider doing some or all of their technical computing tasks on EC2 rather than investing in new systems.

He went on to point out that organizations' need for technical computing was often quite variable.  That is installed computing systems dedicated to technical computing workloads might be idle or be over subscribed. He then suggested that organizations needing to get work done might be better served by "borrowing" resources as needed and paying for them only when they've borrowed them.

This seems a very reasonable position.

I've asked if I could speak with people actually using the technology. As I'm able to speak with them, I'll post something here.

Thanks again, Jason, for taking the time to speak with me.