Amerada Hess chooses Red Hat for supercomputing cluster

Research Triangle Park 20 Jan 00 Red Hat says that Amerada Hess has chosen Red Hat Linux to run a supercomputing cluster in its Exploration Department. The cluster of 128 workstations running on the Red Hat Linux operating system replaces a leased supercomputer and saves Amerada Hess more than $2 million.

Amerada Hess' Exploration Department uses 3-D modeling to find geologic structures in hard-to-reach offshore areas that might have oil or gas. The cluster of Linux workstations performs mathematical functions for these mission-critical exploration activities. The Red Hat Linux operating system was an attractive option due to its remote administration capabilities and the freedom to modify the cluster as needed with complete access to the source code.

"The biggest problem with supercomputers is that they're extremely expensive," said Jeff Davis, senior systems programmer, Amerada Hess. "Using Red Hat's software, we were able to take commodity hardware and easily build a supercomputer ourselves. Red Hat Linux delivers savings, stability and many utilities that ease installation and management."

Amerada Hess also uses the Red Hat operating system on pre-configured Dell servers for 2-D Geophysical Modeling, IBM 3590 Tape Access, Web, NFS and Database applications. The company plans to continue using Red Hat systems as they purchase new servers and supercomputing stations, leveraging Red Hat as a single point of contact for key enterprise systems.

"Amerada Hess' decision to switch to Red Hat is a compelling example of the power of open source in mission-critical enterprise environments," said Paul McNamara, General Manager, Red Hat's Enterprise Business Unit. "As their supercomputing and server needs expand, the flexibility and service offered by Red Hat will allow Amerada Hess to continuously improve key computing operations--without dramatically increasing their bottom-line costs."

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