![BIM与云计算——技术探索[中英对照版]](/skin/img/logo.png){kind=logo}
BIM与云计算——技术探索[中英对照版]
BIM与云计算——技术探求
一、BIM and the Cloud BIM和云计算 Chris France CIO, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting
法国的克里斯 首席信息官 多元化建筑咨询顾问 We have heard a lot about Cloud Computing and SaaS (Software as a Service), but what about moving our high performance graphics workstations to the cloud? This article describes how Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, located in Charlotte NC, built a private cloud that included their high performance graphics workstations (HPGW). A private cloud differs from the public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services or Google by the fact that the cloud computing infrastructure and resources are controlled by the individual business that deploys it. (See a brief discussion by Tom Bittman of Gartner on private cloud computing in this YouTube video.) 我们曾经听到很多关于云计算和SAAS(提供软件应用效劳)的东西，但是从高素质图形工作站到云计算技术的转变，还有什么呢?本文引见了多元化建筑咨询公司的业务是怎样的?这家位于北卡罗来纳州的夏洛特的公司，树立了私人的云计算工作站，包括他们的高性能图形工作站(HPGW)。和私人云计算不同的是，云计算基础设备和资源，由个别企业所控制，例如亚马逊网络效劳或公共云谷歌提供和部署。(见由Gartner公司的汤姆比特曼针对私人云计算在YouTube视频简短的讨论。)
In general, most of the current discussion around cloud computing has been dealing with the servers (or back-end systems). Only recently have businesses begun to put their desktops and workstations into the cloud. Little’s cloud is the first AEC workstation cloud in production and is on track to reduce our workstation and laptop hardware expense by 67% ($2M) over the next 10 years.
普通来说，目前讨论大部分的云计算指效劳器群(或后端系统)。直到最近，已有在云计算方面的台式工作站业务投入运用，LITTLE云计算是首家消费AEC云计算工作站的厂家，而且按这种方式消费，使费用投入在未来十年内减少67%(抵达二百万元)。 Why is this solution viable now—what has changed? There are several reasons. First, the cost of network bandwidth has decreased. You can now get 10mb of metro Ethernet for the same price a T1 (1.5mb) used to cost. Also, Windows 7 and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) have gotten much better at moving screen images of media-rich applications. Finally, hardware costs are coming down and rack-mounted server-class workstations are within the reach of many firms.
这是为什么可行的处置方案往常曾经发作了什么变化?有一些缘由。首先，网络带宽的本钱有所降低，You can now get 10mb of metro Ethernet for the same price a T1 (1.5mb) used to cost.你往常可以以同样的价钱的运用T1网络(即：1.5MB的城域以太网10MB的)，降低本钱。 Also, Windows 7 and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) have gotten much better at moving screen images of media-rich applications.此外，Windows 7和远程桌面协议得更利于移动图像处置和多媒体应用。最后，硬件本钱降落，架构式效劳器工作站的本钱，许多企业都能够承受。
二、Business Benefits of Workstation Clouds 商业利益和云计算工作站 The current economy has been challenging for all organizations and has caused everyone to rethink everything. The driving force behind this cloud innovation at Little has been Building Information Modeling (BIM). Designers are now able to construct a fully documented, 3D building on a computer before they actually build it on-site. This requires a lot of computer power as well as a few obstacles to overcome. Little’s cloud strategy “kills 11 birds with one stone” and has many applications outside of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry as well. These 11 business benefits are discussed below.
目前的经济已应战的一切公司的承受才干，并让大家重新思索一切。在LITTLE公司中云计算改造的驱动力是建筑信息模型(BIM)。设计师往常能够经过树立一个完好的文档，在建筑物未真正树立前，树立在电脑中。这需求大量的计算才干，以及存在一些需求抑制的障碍。LITTLE的云计算战略“一石十一鸟”。它不时要应用于建筑以外的范畴，还要应用在工程，施工(AEC)行业。这十一项商业应用下面将讨论到。 1. Growing Desktop Computing Needs 不时增长的台式电脑 As an architectural and engineering firm, Little has heavy desktop computing needs—very similar to the gaming industry. Our industry applications require a lot of simulation, analysis, rendering, and 3D modeling in order to design buildings. We had been on a 2-yr refresh cycle for our laptops. Each year, Little spent between $250,000-$300,000 and the laptops were getting more expensive as we added more software capability. In 2009, we could not afford to refresh our laptops as we normally did, but we still had increasing desktop needs. Switching to a workstation cloud strategy allowed us to shift to a 4-5 year refresh cycle by providing access to high performance workstations. Our laptops could easily operate as “cloud access devices” and new laptops could be purchased for less than $1000 when required. Now our laptops are kept until the wheels fall off.
作为一个建筑和工程公司，LITTLE具有剧烈的台式电脑的方面的需求——非常相似于游戏行业。我们的行业为了设计建筑，需求做很多模拟，分析，渲染，和3D建模。 2. Collaborating Over Wide Area Geography 跨地域范围协作 As a multi-office firm, Little’s designers would be assigned to a project based on their expertise and the needs of the client project. It was very common to have people in Orlando, DC, and Charlotte working on the same building model. While the software vendors are working on solutions to make their products operate over a WAN and infrastructure companies can provide WAN accelerators—this still was not good enough. Was it too much to ask to have the distributed project teams working just as if they were sitting in the same office? I didn’t think so. By shifting everyone to the cloud, we were able to give that “same office” experience to a distributed project team.
作为一个复合公司，LITTLE公司根据专业学问适宜的项目和客户的需求分配设计师的工作。这非常常见于奥兰多，华盛顿，和夏洛特，他们在同一建筑模型上中止工作。固然软件供应商正在努力寻觅处置更好的处置方案，使他们的产品经过广域网和基础通讯设备中止操作，但这还不够好。这是不是就似乎在同一个办公室里，用项目团队的方式中止工作呢?我并不这么以为。经过每个人的云计算工作站，我们能够给予“同一个办公室”的项目管理方式。 3. Collaborating with Outside Firms on the Same Model 与外部公司在同一个模型的协同设计 The next logical step in BIM model development was to accommodate the standard industry practice of hiring consultants to help design the building. Many firms do not have all the design resources within their company. They regularly work with outside engineering, fire protection, or acoustical consultants—but everyone is working on the same building (and the same model). Now that many of these consultants are using BIM tools, it would be ideal if they could all work on the same model just like employees of the same firm can do. But without the cloud technology, project teams are forced to trade models via an FTP or project websites on set schedules. Real-time collaboration is difficult between external entities. While at Little we have not yet had a project that required real-time collaboration with outside consultants, we have the technology in place to allow it to happen when the need arises.
下一个适宜BIM方式展开的必然步骤是经过延聘顾问提供培训去树立建筑业界的工业标准。许多公司并没有全部BIM设计的资源。他们经常与外部人员，消防，或声学顾问协作，但是每个人都在同一个模型工作。Now that many of these consultants are using BIM tools, it would be ideal if they could all work on the same model just like employees of the same firm can do.往常，这些顾问，很多人应用BIM的工具，假设他们都可能在同一模型的工作就像一对同一家公司的员工，这将是理想。但是，假设没有云计算技术，项目团队就会被迫经过FTP或者在网站上设定时间表的方式去工作。实时协作在和外部公司工作中是最困难。而在LITTLE，我们还没有一个项目，是需求和外部公司完成实时协作的，我们有足够的技术，应对这一切潜在的需求。
4. IT Infrastructure Cost Consolidation 整合IT基础设备的本钱 While the genesis of Little’s cloud was to solve the BIM computing problem, it has yielded other benefits. Virtualization is another IT industry strategy that is central to building high performance clouds. Increases in hardware and network performance, coupled by a corresponding reduction in price, have made virtualization very attractive to IT leaders. Virtualization was initially justified based on hardware cost reduction. In our case, we have 57 physical servers now running on 2 physical servers ($170,000 versus $35,000). Storage is virtualized as well—we manage approximately 50 terabytes of data. Had we not virtualized our storage when we did, we would have had to add a large amount of IT staff to manage various physical data volumes. It enabled us to avoid an annual expense of $700,000. By using a combination of this sophisticated virtualization software, I wanted to see the same reductions in our laptop/desktop infrastructure.
固然LITTLE推行云计算的缘由是为了解决BIM的问题，和取得其他好处。虚拟化是另一个IT产业的战略，这触及的是中枢系统的具备高性能的云计算系统。这样，进步了硬件和网络性能，和减少本钱，这遭到很多IT指导人的欢迎。虚拟化最初是合理地在降低硬件基础方面的本钱。在我们的案例里，我们以前一个项目要试用57部电脑，往常经过运转着的两个云计算效劳器。本钱的对比是$170,000 对 $35,000。假设我们没有虚拟化的存储空间，我们就不得不天价大量的电脑技术人员去管理我们的数据。它使我们每年减少了70万美圆的花费。经过试用这种虚拟化的软件技术，我们可以减少我们的笔记本电脑和桌面基础设备的投入。 5. Regional Office IT Infrastructure Consolidation 区域办事处的IT基础架构整合 We recently consolidated two of our Los Angeles offices into one for better efficiency. Faced with a decision to buy a large, 2TB+ storage area network (SAN) or network attached storage (NAS), we opted instead to move our LA office “to the cloud.” With the cloud infrastructure that was in Charlotte, we had on-demand resources to accommodate this expansion of disk and consolidation of office space. This strategy has allowed the regional office to operate exclusively in the cloud with no local storage; we plan to move our other three offices to the cloud by the end of the year. Again, it is just like being in the same office—the physical location of the office does not matter.
我们最近兼并成为一个更富管理效率的洛杉矶办事处。面对是选择一个2TB的存储区域网络(SAN)还是网络附加存储(NAS)，最后我们选择的方案是：把我们洛杉矶办事处的设备改构成云计算。随着云计算的基础设备的铺设，在夏洛特，我们就按需配置了这些资源，以满足这一磁盘和稳定的办公空间的扩展。这一战略使区域办事处的运作与本地云存储更好地配合，我们计划将在今年年底为我们的其他办事处配置云计算设备。同样，能否在同一个办公室并不重要。 6. General Purpose Business Applications 通用业务应用
Sure, designers love the raw power an $8000 workstation can bring to them, but what about the rest of us? With Little’s virtualized high performance graphics workstation, this technology is affordable to all firms, in all industries, and for all applications. Imagine the productivity enhancements of running Outlook, Microsoft Office 2007, Financial, HR, or other business applications on a HPGW? Seven to ten BIM designers can work on one of these workstations. Depending on the business applications, a firm may be able to run 20-30 users on such a box. An $8000 HPGW running 30 business users costs $267/user. Isn’t that worth the productivity gained?
当然，设计师喜欢更好的工作设备，一台价值8万美圆的工作站能够辅佐他们，但对我们其他人呢?借助LITTLE的虚拟化高配置的图形工作站，这项技术是人人都能担负得起的。因此各行业，都得到普遍应用。想象一下，运转OUTLOOK,OFFICE,财务软件，人力资源管理软件等，或者HPGW的其他商业应用的上，这对业务的进步都是有利的。七至十个BIM的设计师可以再这些工作站上工作。根据不同的业务应用，企业可以同时运转20到30个这样的项目。一个价值8000美圆的HPGW适宜30个商业用户的应用，这样来看，每一个用户就是267美圆。这难道不是进步了消费力吗? 7. Full Mobility 充足的移动性 How many employees work exclusively in their physical office all the time? With the consolidation of real estate leased space, more workers telecommuting from home, and more freelancers and consultants competing for jobs all over the place, people need to be able to run all their office applications anytime, anyplace, just as if they were in their office. This has been difficult up to now as people would have the applications on their laptops and their data scattered between local and remote sources. There have been improvements from the WAN accelerator companies that allow individual users access to accelerate their laptop traffic, but again, this is still not good enough. With a secure remote cloud gateway, Little’s people are able to access their HPGW which is sitting right next to their data on a gigabit LAN. Their laptop is nothing more than a cloud access device for most of their computing.
员工们在他们的办公室工作占用的时间难道是一切时间吗?随着房地产租金的进步，更多工人在家远程办公，更多自由职业者和顾问的中止就业竞争。四处，人们需求的是能够运转一切的办公应用程序，这在任何时间，任何地点，就似乎他们自己的办事处一样。但这是很难完成的。人们会运用他们的笔记本电脑与本地和远程分散的数据源中止交流数据。至今，公司都还没有在网速上得到很大进步，使个人用户访问他们的电脑，加快网速，同样地，我们可以以为这一切还不够好。有了安全的远程云计算工作站，LITTLE的员工能够访问他们效劳器，就似乎旁边有一个高速的局域网一样。他们的笔记本电脑成为云计算接入的设备。 Home workers now have more options. They still need a broadband Internet connection, but instead of working on their laptop connected to their home Internet connection, they can use RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) from their laptop to access the remote high performance workstation and use its computing resources, as shown in Figure 1. This workstation, coupled with the 20 MB corporate Internet connection provides a much better and faster computing experience. This is because the HPGW is better than their laptop and the corporate Internet connection is way better than their residential broadband.
家用工人往常有更多的选择。他们仍然需求一个宽带衔接，同时运用笔记本电脑衔接网络，他们可以运用他们的电脑经过远程桌面协议来访问远程的工作站和应用其资源。如图1.这个工作站，与网速抵达20MB的英特网衔接，加上公司提供一个了更好更快的计算机效劳。这是由于HPGW的优于他们的笔记本电脑和互联网衔接的效劳质量。
8. IT Automation and Support Reduction IT自动化和和自主化 While a cloud strategy does not change your software licensing agreements with your software vendors or the related costs, it is much easier for your IT staff to deploy and manage new applications. Many software applications have a network or concurrent licensing model. This means that anyone can work on any workstation as long as there is an available license in the pool. If everyone in the company needs access to a particular application, the traditional approach was to use sophisticated scripting or software automation to push an application to 200+ laptops. This is time consuming and problematic as it is hard to update a laptop that rarely connects to the corporate network. We can run our entire company on 20 HPGW (aka cloud computers). These 20 HPGW are stationary, located in a datacenter, and available 24x7. It is much easier for IT to update these 20 stationary computers than 200 mobile computers. Depending on the application and number of users, we will put it on one cloud computer and people just login to it when they need to run it. Problem solved.
云计算战略不会改动您的软件的厂商或者授权费用，这是很容易为你的IT工作人员的分配和管理提供便利。许多软件具有网络或者并发的容许方式。这意味着，任何人都可以在任何地点工作，只需有一个系统的认证就可以。假设在公司的每个人需求访问特定的应用程序，传统的做法是应用先进的脚本或者软件自动化，这推进了200个应用程序的运转和衔接着数台电脑。这是耗时耗力的，由于它是难于更新这些衔接的笔记本电脑，他们不经常衔接到公司网络。我们能够运转200个HPGW(又名云计算机)管理我们整个公司。这20个HPGW是固定的，在一个数据中心，并且全天24小时运转。这种方式更容易地升级，并且管理更多台的移动电脑和固定电脑。根据应用和用户数量，我们会启动一个云计算机，当运用者需求它的时分，自动登录上去。这样问题就处置了。
9. Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and Security 业务连续性 灾难恢复战争安 How many firms back up their user desktops and laptops? Not many, due to the time and disk requirements. But IT knows that many people have all kinds of corporate and client information on their laptops. With the cloud strategy, we were able to keep corporate and client information “in the cloud” where it is backed up and replicated. Without the cloud, if your laptop is stolen or the hard drive crashes, you are out of commission until your IT department can get you a new laptop or rebuild it after it is repaired. With an HPGW cloud, if there is a failure, there is no data lost since it is on the SAN. And there is no downtime. Little has spare capacity on the cloud just for disaster recovery purposes. For example, if cloud box LC-0000 goes down (LC stands for Little’s Cloud), IT tells the people assigned to that box to login to LC-5000 and keep on working. Their profiles and user data migrates over with them. If their cloud access device (such as their laptop) fails, IT can hand them a spare laptop and they can keep working. If they are on the road, they can walk into any electronics store and buy a $400 laptop to access the cloud. And finally, security is greatly enhanced, particularly for the client data. People can leave their data in the cloud and not have to bring it to the local laptop. If there is a situation where people need to present and need data locally, it will just be a copy and not the source.
有几公司需求备份他们的用户台式机和笔记本电脑中的资料呢?不是很多，由于时间和磁盘恳求比较高。但IT技术人员知道，许多公司在电脑中都保管有很多关于企业和客户的各种信息。随着云计算战略的运用，我们能够坚持和企业和客户信息的云计算机中止备份和复制，这个问题就不会有了。假设没有云，假设你的笔记本电脑被盗或者硬盘崩溃，你的佣金等，直到你的IT部门可以给你一台新的笔记本电脑或者重装后，它才被修复。借着HPGW的云计算机，即使是失败的话，也没有任何数据丧失，由于它是在SAN上。而且没有停机时间。LITTLE上有空余的备份空间，抵达恢复的目的。例如，假设云中的LC-0000呈现缺点(LITTLE的LC标准)，它通知分配给资源的人登陆到LC-5000，并且继续工作。他们的个人资料和用户数据迁移超越他们。假设他们的云计算机接入设备(例如他们的笔记本电脑)失败，它可以衔接他们一个备用笔记本电脑，就可以继续工作了。即使他们在旅途中，他们一样可以走进任何一家电子产品商店，买一台价值400美圆的笔记本电脑访问云计算机。最后，安全性大大进步了，特别是对客户的数据的管理。人们可以应用留在云计算机的数据，而不用将其带到当地的笔记本电脑。假设有一个人需求的文件和所要提交的数据在本地计算机，它是一个拷贝，而不是源。 10. Locked Down Corporate Desktops, Unlocked Personal Ltops 锁定和解锁个人计算机和企业级计算机 How long has IT tried to lock down corporate desktops so that they will be consistently available for business? Now try to balance that requirement with the people’s need for autonomy, local software innovation, and the ability to respond to clients’ needs without having to check in with IT every time. Little’s cloud offers the best of both worlds. We lock down our cloud computers and do not allow any personal applications or data. The local laptop, in effect, becomes our place for personal data, pictures, and applications (such as iTunes). If people want to back up their laptop, the company recommends that employees purchase their own USB hard drive, or buy a subscription to an online backup service. If people blow away their local settings and data or their laptop becomes infected with spyware, IT can quickly replace their laptop. Their business applications and data remain unaffected.
你有多久试图锁定企业的台式计算机，使他们持续中止工作呢?往常尝试平衡他们的恳求，随着对自动化的需求，软件创新，并对客户恳求作出反响，这样做而不用IT技术人员每次检查客软件。LITTLE的云计算机提供了一箭双雕的处置方法。我们锁定的云计算，不允许任何个人乱用应用程序或数据。本地的笔记本电脑，理论上成为我们的个人资料库，存储图片的中央，和存储应用程序的中央(如ITUNES)。假设人们想备份他们的笔记本电脑，该公司建议员工置办自己的USB硬盘，或置办到到一个在线备份效劳订阅。假设人们失去了当地的设置和数据，或者他们的笔记本电脑被间谍软件感染，它可以疾速改换笔记本电脑。他们的业务应用程序和数据不受影响。 11. Rendering and Animation Farm 渲染和动画 Most large design firms have a 3D animation studio where they create photo-realistic renderings of their buildings. Many take it to the next level of making short movies, fly-throughs, or full cinematic storytelling to give clients a better sense of what their new facility will look like. These rendering programs have to crunch frame by frame of a video and could take several days to complete. By having a HPGW cloud, these studios can use the cloud at the same time people are using the cloud, just at a lower processor priority (see Figure 4). When people go home, these programs crank up and fully utilize the CPU all night long. On some jobs, we have seen rendering times drop from 53 mins/frame to 7.3 secs/frame. With all this additional number crunching ability, regular renderings get done quicker. It is also encouraging Little’s designers to move into “high definition” (HD) rendering to achieve a higher level of quality, client “Wow” factor, and enhanced competitive capability.
多数大型设计公司有一个三维动画工作室，他们创造照片级的理论渲染。许多人应用它来制造短片，漫游动画，或者完好的电影故事，让客户清楚他们的新建筑，这样更好天文解建筑。这些渲染程序必需创造一个关键帧，并可能需求数天才干完成。经过具有HPGW的云计算，这些工作室可以只运用一个处置器低优先级的云计算机中止计算，(见图4)并在同一时间中供人运用。当人们回家，CPU还中止着这些项目的渲染。在一些工作中，我们曾经看到这样做的收到的效果，例如渲染时间从53分钟减低到7.3秒。有了这些额外的数字运算才干，经常渲染更快完成。同样令人鼓舞的是LITTLE的设计师中止了高清渲染，并抵达了更高的质量，客户也赞扬了，这样就增强了竞争才干。
Figure 4. The cloud HPGW also does double duty as a rendering farm in addition to running BIM applications.
图四。除了运转和BIM应用渲染，云计算机HPGW完成了双重担务。
Implementing a HPGW Cloud Strategy 实施HPGW云战略 This section provides an overview of the two main steps we look at Little to create our virtualized High Performance Graphical Workstations. The virtualization of other IT assets such as servers and storage are also crucial to the full workstation cloud strategy. A schematic diagram of the cloud is shown in Figure 5
本节提供了LITTLE公司中我们关注的两个重要步骤，用来创建虚拟化的高素质的图像工作站。其他IT工作部件例如效劳器和村村器的虚拟化，关于完好的云计算战略工作站都是至关重要的。云计算战略的统计图如图5.
Figure 5. Implementation diagram of the HPGW cloud.
图5。应用HPGW云计算机关系图。
1. Virtualize the Servers and Storage 。As a method to save money in buying new server hardware, we began testing VMware’s ESX software. After an initial pilot on low-risk servers, we worked out tools and techniques and now all servers are placed into a virtual infrastructure. This had led to significant reductions in Little’s hardware expense and we have seen greatly increased operational capabilities such as “instant” provisioning, disaster recovery, and business continuity. It has enabled the IT department to be able to deliver on the corporate challenge to “do more with less.” Next, Little chose to virtualize its storage to save money and to be able to manage a mountain of data with existing IT staff. We standardized on the EMC CX500 and have a big pot of disks that are carved as needed for applications and servers. That pot-o-disk is approaching 50 TB on two, redundant EMC’s.
作为一种方法的虚拟化存储器，以俭省置办新五福器硬件的钱，我们开端测试VMWARE的ESX软件。经过对低风险效劳器的试点应用，我们设计了一套工具和技术，往常一切效劳器都作为一个虚拟基础架构。这招致了在LITTLE的硬件费用大幅度降低，我们曾经看到大大增加应用性，例如在“即时”配置，备份恢复和业务连续性方面。它运用IT部门能够提供给有关企业少花钱多办事的便利。接着，LITTLE选择它的存储虚拟化以俭省资金，并能够管理现有IT工作人员的数据。我们在EMCCX500的标准化是提供了应用程序和效劳器所需求的大磁盘空间。这磁盘空间接近50TB，并且属于EMC的。 2. Virtualize your High Performance Graphical Workstations 虚拟化高性能图形工作站 Let me first clarify what I mean when I say “virtualized workstations.” Technically, these workstations are not virtualized like most IT people think of virtualization. We do not use VMware’s ESX server or any other Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) like Citrix Zendesktop or VMware View. We use a utility that allows us to share the Windows 7 64-bit operating system with many users at the same time. So from an IT perspective, this is a shared piece of hardware. From an end user’s perspective, it looks and feels like a virtual desktop.
首先让我廓清一下我的意义,当我说虚拟工作站“的时分，从技术上说，这些工作站并不是大多数的IT工作者以为的那种虚拟化。我们不适用VMWARE的ESX效劳器或者其他虚拟桌面系统(VDI)，如Citrix Zendesktop 或者 VMware View。我们运用的是一种适用的工具，使我们能够共享WIN7 64位，与同时，使许多用户运用操作系统。因此，从IT角度来看，这是一个共同的硬件设备。从最终用户的角度来看，它看起来像一个虚拟桌面。 To derive the same virtualization benefits for our desktops that we had realized with our servers and storage, we tested various desktop virtualization products. However, they did not virtualize the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which led to poor performance—a cloud that would be slower than users’s laptops. The key to getting our users to move to a workstation cloud was to provide not just the same experience as their laptop, but an experience that was WAY better than their laptop. I wanted a workstation cloud that people couldn’t touch with their laptop computers. What if we took a baby-step towards desktop virtualization and used a hybrid approach? I had a vision where we could have a smoking fast workstation sitting in a data center that we could get to via various remote desktop protocols. But this wasn’t good enough. That approach still needed a one-to-one mapping of people to workstations. This really didn’t save us any money. But what if we could turn a single-user workstation into a MULTI-USER workstation—call it a workstation server? To our end users, it would look virtualized to them and be in the “cloud.” To the IT staff, it was a piece of shared hardware. I challenged our IT staff to come up with a concept to build this and they did! Based on our benchmark testing, we are able to put 10 people on these shared workstations.
和我们过往方式一样，我们在效劳器和存储方面完成了和台式机相同的虚拟化所带来的利益，我们还测试了各种桌面虚拟化产品。但是，他们没有虚拟化的图形处置单元(GPU)，这招致表现欠佳，还会比用户的笔记本电脑慢。这对我们的用户来说，在工作站上运用的不同，关键在于提供了不只是他们自己的运用习气，而且是一个阅历。这种方式针织比他们的笔记本电脑运用更好，我想，有了云计算工作站，人们就不需求依赖他们的笔记本电脑。假设我们采取了一种简单的桌面虚拟化工作的方法，并且运用了混合的方法，这将是最好的。我有一个见地，我们有一个布置在数据中心的快速反映工作站，我们可以得到经过各种远程桌面的协议。但这还不够，这种办法仍然需求一个能够映射到工作站的操作者。这确实没有任何保证。但是，假设我们能成为一个多用户工作站中的单用户站呢?我们称之为工作站效劳器。这就有可能处置了。我们作为最终用户，将他们虚拟化，并且布置在云计算机上，关于IT技术者，这就是所说的共同的硬件。我质疑我们的IT人员怎样树立这个概念，但他们做了!根据我们的基本测试，我们能够把这些共同的工作站扩容为10人。 Here is the “the secret sauce” of our strategy:
这是我们的秘密： Hardware 硬件 Rack mounted workstation架架式工作站 (2) 3.0 Ghz Xeon quad-core processors (8 cores total) (2)的3.0 GHz Xeon双核处置器(8核总) 32GB RAM 32GB的内存 1.5GB Video RAM 1.5GB的显存 Fast local hard drive 快速存储硬盘 User/design data mapped to virtualized storage on our SAN
用户/映射到我们的SAN的虚拟化存储的设计数据 Client access device: their primary Windows laptop
客户端的设备：他们的WINDOWS系统 Software 软件 Microsoft Windows 7, 64-bit desktop operating system WIN7 64位 Utility software for multi-user access, load balancing of CPU, network, and memory resources.
适用软件多用户访问，负载的CPU，网络和内存资源的平衡。 Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) used for client remote access 远程桌面协议(RDP)客户端远程访问运用 Based on a company the size of Little (225 people), we can provide design services on 20 HPGW cloud computers. These workstations will NOT need to be refreshed every 2 yrs like users’ individual laptops. We are guestimating that we’ll refresh every 4-5 yrs, with maybe a component upgrade in the interim. Our primary laptops will only need to be replaced when they die—and we’re hoping to get 4 years out of them. With most of the computing load moved off our laptops, when we do need to replace laptops they will cost $800-$1000 rather than $2200-$2500. I figured it was better to spend $1M over 10 years rather than $3M to buy desktop computing hardware. 根据公司的范围(225人)，我们可以提供20台HPGW云计算电脑设计效劳。这些工作站不用像用户自己的电脑一样，每两年就更新一次。我们的客户经理，将组建升级时间进步到4到5年左右。随着我们放弃运用整天升级的笔记本电脑，我们就不用整天为硬件而烦恼。随着硬件问题的处置，当我们需求改换硬件的时分，他们将花费800美圆到1000美圆左右的价钱，而不是2200到2500美圆。我想更好的运用时间将超越10年左右，而不是花300万美圆置办台式计算机和花一百万元升级硬件。
Does this solution work internationally? Technically it does, but I would say practically it does not. The network latency across oceans is really too great to get a smooth desktop experience. I have logged into the cloud from my aircard and it was OK. Typing was slow, but you can do basic things. The latency on my aircard was 180ms and that is similar to what one would experience over the oceans. So depending on how globally you are working now, it may be better. But it is not the “same as being there” performance. Within the US, however, the performance is rock solid, with coast-to-coast latencies of 50-55ms. It works so well that we were able to run our Los Angeles office entirely in the cloud with no local storage, as mentioned earlier. If a company has an international footprint, you could set up clouds on each continent so you would not have to cross the ocean to work.
这能否是一个在国际上通用的处置方案呢?从技术上讲，这样的方法理论操作很难。逾越大洋的网络延迟时间真实是太大的障碍。我曾经登录到云计算机，它是肯定的，但你打字很慢，电脑运转很慢，由于网速的缘由，你只能做基本的东西。我的网卡的延时是180MS，这相当于我得等候这么长的时间。因此，假设能在全球范围内处置这问题，可能会更好。但它不是你说怎样就怎样的。在美国，性能稳如磐石的电脑，低延迟的电脑，工作非常顺利，我们能够运转在没有本地存储的云计算机，它放在洛杉矶办事处，在上面曾经说过这个例子了。假设一家跨国公司，或许你能设置好每个大陆的云计算机，然后你就能顺利的工作了，不用逾越大洋工作。 Here is a list of the lessons we have learned so far from production users on the cloud:
下面是我们目前从云计算机客户运用阅历方面得到信息： With multiple users using the same workstation, we were able to see how underutilized our laptops really are. Most of the time, they are sitting idle when people are in meetings or out in the field. This makes laptops ripe for consolidation.
由于多个用户运用同一个工作站，我们可以看到充分应用我们的笔记本电脑是可行的。在大多数情况下，当他们闲置时，在外地中止工作的时分，这些机遇都使得笔记本电脑整合机遇变成成熟。 Not all users’ computing needs are the same—some consume much more memory and CPU than others. The IT staff worked with them to see if the need is legitimate or if there was a training issue.
并非一切用户对计算机的需求是相同的，有些会消耗更多的内存和CPU资源。IT人员与他们的协作，看需求是可行的，或者能否存在需求培训的问题。 Memory was the biggest constraint. Early on, we had a “cloud burst” by having too many people consuming memory on one box. We locked up the box. By reducing the number of designers per box from 8 to 7 and adding more memory, the cloud bursts were eliminated.
内存是最大的限制。在早期，在一个云计算机上有很多人运用，消耗了大量的内存。我们于是锁定了组件。经过减少设计者的组件数目，从8到7减低，同时参与更多的内存，云计算机迸发就减少了。 Some applications do not lend themselves well to a remote desktop strategy. We had to tweak our AutoCAD program because the mouse-pointer “cross hair” caused too much data to be sent—and this is tiresome if a user is working in AutoCAD all day long. Real-time video compositing also works better with local hardware. Be sure to test your mission critical applications. The cloud approach is better, but not perfect.
一些应用程序不适宜很好地应用远程桌面的战略。我们必需调整我们的CAD程序，由于鼠标指针“十字线”，构成太多的数据发送，这关于用户是在AUTOCAD工作一整天是很受打击的。
实时视频合成还应该与本地的硬件更好地配合。一定要测试您的关键任务的应用。云计算的做法是好，但是并不圆满。 We can drive utilization of these boxes to nearly 100%. When people aren’t using them, we turn these into our “rendering farm” that generates computer animations. Since these processes run at a lower priority than our user applications, they can be running at the same time as people are designing. Any additional capacity is used for new users and disaster recovery purposes.
我们的这些组件的应用率接近100%。当人们运用的不是他们的时分，我们就将他们转成电脑动画渲染项目。由于这些进程运转在较低的优先级，他们可以再同一时间运转其他设计。这样任何额外的资源都可以用于新用户和备份恢复。 Running on the cloud is faster from home than a laptop hooked into a broadband cable service. People forget where they leave their stuff. IT people take remote desktops for granted since they use them every day. It takes a little coaching and practice on the users’ part to realize what’s going on. But once they catch on, they are all over this new computing method.
云计算机的运转速度的权衡是根据网络的类型选择的。人们遗忘了分开他们的中央。IT技术工作者运用远程桌面是理所当然的，由于他们每天都运用。这需求一些教练在用户的参与和理论中认识到发作了什么事情。但是，一旦他们进步起来，他们都在用这个方法。 Conclusion 结论 At Little, our high performance graphical workstation cloud strategy has realized all eleven business benefits discussed earlier and we will continue to improve and come up with more. I see this private, hybrid, HPGW cloud to be invaluable until the main software vendors have created software that can truly virtualize the GPU. When that time comes, perhaps in the next 3 to 4 year, we will upgrade our cloud infrastructure to be able to run 225 designers on only two physical high performance graphical workstations. We can only dream.
在LITTLE,我们的高性能图形工作站运用云计算战略，完成了商业利益，在上面都讨论过，我们将继续改善和提出更多有效的方法。我们看到这个私营，复合的的方法。HPGW云计算是无价之宝，直到主要的软件供应商创建的了软件能够模拟的GPU，到时分，在未来3到4年，或许，我们会加强我们的云计算基础设备的投入，使它能够运转在只需两个物理高性能图形工作站上，总共运用的人有225个设计师。我们有我们的梦想。 About the Author 作者Chris France is the CIO for Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, located in Charlotte NC. He has specialized in Information Technology for over two decades. He started his career at IBM Federal Systems as a software and systems engineer and progressed to project manager of major DOD systems. From IBM, he traveled to Charlotte to work for Bank of America where he led efforts to merge and consolidate the information technology of major bank acquisitions. Prior to becoming the CIO of Little, he consulted in the technology-intense Wachovia Capital Markets.
克里斯法兰西是一位首席信息官，是一个多元化的建筑咨询公司，位于北卡罗来纳州的夏洛特。他特地从事科技咨询超越20年了。他在IBM开端他的职业生活，并作为联邦系统软件工程师和国防部系统项目经理。来自IBM，他前往夏洛特为美国银行工作，他指导兼并大银行。然后成为LITTLE的首席信息官，他同时在WACHOVIA做科技咨询。 As CIO of Little, Chris not only leads the firm’s Information Technology Strategy, Planning and Operations, but he also works with clients to ensure that their diverse technology needs are addressed and incorporated during the design process of their new facility.
作为LITTLE的首席信息官，克里斯不只指导着公司的信息技术战略，并规划业务展开，同时和客户协作，以确保其不同技术需求得到满足并在他们新设备的设计过程应用新技术。
![[分享]关于精华帖、置顶帖和删帖的说明](/e/data/images/no.jpg)
