Caterham F1 Team, Designed and Deployed an Enterprise-Class Environment, Including an HPC Cluster, in Less Than 22 Weeks
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From 0-220 mph in 22 weeks Customer profi le Team Lotus, now Caterham F1 Team, designed and deployed an enterprise-class environment, including an HPC cluster, in less than 22 weeks. Company Caterham F1 Team Industry Sport Country UK & Malaysia Employees 250 Business need In 2010, Team Lotus aimed to become the fastest new team in Formula 1. Now as Caterham F1 Team, they need a powerful enterprise and trackside infrastructure to lay a foundation for success in future seasons. Solution The team worked with Dell consultants to design an enterprise environment, including an Intel® Cluster Ready high performance computing (HPC) cluster utilising Platform Software’s Cluster Manager Dell Edition and LSF industry leading tools, high density power protection and highly effi cient in row cooling provided by APC, network, and trackside environments with Dell servers, storage, laptops and support. Benefi ts • Intel Cluster Ready HPC saves time, money in optimal environment for utilisation and productivity • EqualLogic storage with solid-state drives performs in harsh trackside “ We soon realised that Dell understood environments • Dell ProSupport Enterprise-Wide our industry – everything from the Contract ensures a four-hour technology needed to design an F1™ car, response anywhere in the world • Enterprise IT environment designed to our requirement for trackside laptops and deployed in less than six months • Team Lotus was the fastest of the and storage that could withstand extreme new teams in 2010. temperatures and vibrations.” Solution areas Bill Peters, Head of IT, Caterham F1 Team • Backup, recovery and archiving • HPC • Mobility • Virtualization Every business in the world hones its systems for maximum performance Technology in practice and competitive advantage, but Services few can say that the diff erence between success and failure can Dell Consulting Services come down to millimetres or a Dell ProSupport Enterprise-Wide hundredth of a second, as is the case Contract with Formula 1™ (F1™) racing teams. To get an F1™ car to peak performance Platform Professional Services and keep it there takes hundreds of Hardware people, multiple IT infrastructures and constant monitoring – plus an Intel® Cluster Ready HPC “ We needed the environment that can move seamlessly Dell PowerVault MD 3200/ to a diff erent country MD1200 storage arrays maximum amount each week. Dell EqualLogic PS6000S storage area network of processing power This is a huge challenge for the teams in the minimum competing in the F1™ season, but Dell EqualLogic PS6000x storage especially for new teams like Caterham area network of space – and we F1 Team. In a sport where time is Dell EqualLogic PS6000e storage precious, Bill Peters, Head of IT at area network needed it quickly. Caterham F1 Team, was given a matter ™ of months to build the IT Infrastructure Dell PowerEdge R210 servers The Intel Cluster with Intel Xeon® processor X5570 needed to run a competitive racing Ready HPC that Dell team. Peters says: “We found out quite Dell PowerEdge™ M610/R710 late on that we’d been accepted into servers with Intel Xeon® processor recommended is the 2010 F1™ season, and had less than X5570 ideal for us because 22 weeks to build everything from Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular scratch – including a high performance blade enclosures computing (HPC) cluster, network and it off ered the right Dell Latitude™ E6500/E4300 trackside infrastructures, laptops with Intel Core™ 2 Duo performance at the a design environment and storage. processors right price.” I knew we needed a tier-one IT partner to work with us at every stage.” Dell Precision M6500/4600 laptops with Intel Core i7-920XM Bill Peters, Head of IT, Building an enterprise infrastructure Quad Core Extreme Edition Caterham F1 Team processors in a few months is no simple task, but Peters has 15 years’ experience Dell PowerConnect networking in the F1™ industry and had three key switches 6xxx, 7xxx and 8xxx series requirements from a potential IT partner. Dell TL2000 backup appliance First, a single provider for hardware and service across all projects. Second, a APC managed power distribution partner that was responsive and able units to work to tight deadlines with a global APC 3000VA and 120000VA support network. Third, an excellent APC in row cooling price–performance ratio. Peters says: and containment for high density “We spoke to a number of suppliers, but Clusters. only Dell proved it could deliver in every category. Against other fi rms, Dell was Software more responsive. The Dell Consulting Symantec® Backup Exec™ team came in and listened to our requirements, quickly turning them into VMware® vSphere™ 4 a statement of work.” Platform Cluster Manager Dell Edition Dell consultants design an enterprise-class environment Platform LSF “As a new business, we’re heavily reliant APC PowerChute (R) power on Dell services. Dell did a fantastic management 2 job of bringing everything together. It Intel Xeon® processors X5570 series. understood how an F1™ company works These are housed in energy-effi cient and the importance of our timeframes,” Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular says Peters. Dell consultants held a blade enclosures and connected to series of workshops covering the design Dell PowerVault MD 3200 and MD1200 and implementation of servers, storage, storage arrays. APC also delivered networks and infrastructure applications. a right-sized data center solution This process mapped the team’s short to ensure energy effi cient critical and long-term business goals to its power and cooling with scalability to IT strategy. Dell brought in its partner, maximize use of space and allow for Platform Computing for its experience future growth. in the F1 industry. Dell and Platform Computing worked with the in-house Peters says: “We needed the maximum IT team to design the optimal HPC amount of processing power in the environment for the team. minimum of space – and we needed it quickly. The Intel Cluster Ready HPC Caterham had requirements specifi c that Dell and Platform Computing to the F1™ industry, so Dell’s experience recommended is ideal for us because with other F1™ teams was invaluable, it off ered the right performance at the as Peters explains: “We soon realised right price. This cluster is critical to the that Dell understood our industry – success of the team. It works around everything from the technology needed the clock simulating aerodynamics and “ When a F1 engine to design an F1™ car, to our requirement helps us design the cars. It gives us our for trackside laptops and storage that competitive edge.” starts, the ground could withstand extreme temperatures and vibrations.” Creating a resilient trackside IT shakes, so we have environment to travel the world solid-state drives Building a powerful HPC environment The team’s HPC environment helps for Computational prepare the cars for each competition, in our EqualLogic Fluid Dynamics but on race day the team needs a Caterham F1 Team needed the HPC completely diff erent infrastructure. This storage, plus Dell solution for Computational Fluid trackside environment must deliver demonstrated that Dynamics – a way of accurately all the functionality and performance simulating wind tunnels in a virtual expected of an enterprise-class IT the PowerEdge space. With their knowledge of the infrastructure, but it must also be highly F1™ industry, Dell’s consultants worked resilient, and – most importantly – servers and storage alongside the in house IT team to mobile, because the team travels across had been tested design the solution. The initial designs the world. With the latest rack servers were completed on a cloud-based and laptops from Dell, the team’s in extreme heat – HPC environment provided by overall IT footprint is half that of most Cambridge University. When ready, competitors. This means it saves space even more than 40 the project was migrated to when travelling long haul – space that degrees Celsius.” Caterham’s own HPC platform. can be used for spare car parts and other necessities. Peters explains: “On The team selected an Intel® Cluster race day, we’re entirely reliant on our Bill Peters, Head of IT, Ready HPC – a production-ready trackside IT environment. Quite simply, Caterham F1 Team system that comes in a confi guration if our IT fails, we can’t race. We need with pre-tested Dell hardware, excellent communications within the middleware from Platform Computing team, plus a lot of storage capacity and and ISV applications for wind tunnel powerful systems to handle our data.” simulation – so Caterham can be confi dent it will work as expected from Once again, Dell consultants’ the start. This consists of 186 Dell™ expertise and experience within the PowerEdge™ M610 blade servers with F1™ industry ensured that Caterham 3 deployed the right environment PowerEdge servers, EqualLogic within a short space of time. With storage, the network and our Latitude little time to test, Dell designed an and Precision laptops in a live environment comprised of four Dell environment only a couple of days PowerEdge R710 servers connected before our fi rst race.” to a Dell EqualLogic PS6000S SAN with solid-state drives, and two APC Anytime, anywhere service with Dell high density UPS. The servers are ProSupport Enterprise-Wide Contract virtualized with VMware® vSphere™ 4, The F1™ season currently consists and the team’s data is protected with of circuits across 20 countries, so Symantec™ Backup Exec™. Peters to ensure maximum reliability and says: “I had a high-level idea of what performance, Caterham F1 Team we needed, but Dell designed and has Dell ProSupport Enterprise-Wide deployed everything to meet our Contract. This support, which has challenges. When an F1™ engine proved invaluable already, gives the starts, the ground shakes, so we have team a four-hour response in any solid-state drives in our EqualLogic country. Peters explains: “I’ve used storage, plus Dell demonstrated that ProSupport Enterprise-Wide Contract the PowerEdge servers and storage for simple replacements or when we’ve had been tested in extreme heat – had questions.