ETH Zurich, CloudBroker select IBM Cloud Computing

ETH Zurich and CloudBroker, a provider of computing applications in the cloud, have selected IBM for cloud computing technology for conducting research to develop new antibiotics.
Under the agreement, the researchers of ETH Zurich’s Institute of Molecular Systems Biology will use IBM’s SmartCloud Enterprise and data management solutions of CloudBroker for identifying around 250 virulence factors or molecules that are secreted by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or protozoa and then multiply within humans.

Using IBM Smart Cloud Enterprise, the team of researchers had access to almost 250,000 computing hours on a total of 1,000 parallel CPU’s producing research on the structure of specific proteins found in the streptococcus bacteria which commonly causes strep throat in humans.

ETH Zurich lead researcher Lars Malmstrom said Cloud computing allows to reserve this computing capacity whenever researchers need it, and it is available quickly.”Research teams do not need to set it up or maintain it, and thus can concentrate better on their research,” Malmstrom said.