UK Universities Launch Cloud Supercomputer For Hire

judgecorp writes "Cambridge University and Imperial College London have combined forces to make a cloud-based supercomputer service. Supercomputers have traditionally not been shared this way, but CORE — the biggest Intel-based HPC system in the UK, and in the top 100 supercomputers in the world — will be available on a pay-per-use basis by industry, small businesses and other academic bodies."

How is this

[Dyinobal]

How is this any different from renting time on other supercomputer systems? Is it special because they added the word cloud to the mix? I mean seriously why are we using this stupid marketing term in any discussion about computers these days. I don't know how many times my clients ask me about the 'cloud' and I have to explain that all that means is you're storing your data or using the computing power of a remote server. It's a misleading and uninformative term like most marketing lingo. I think most people are starting to think we have found some new way to store data in actual clouds.