The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is partnering two A*STAR (Agency of Science, Technology and Research) institutes to develop innovative cloud computing-powered technological solutions that will help boost the competitiveness of local ICT companies.

Under the partnership agreement with the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) which was signed on 28 August, IDA will match IHPC’s expertise with ICT companies based on their needs. The aim is to help these companies make use of cloud-based technologies in product and service development as well as their business operations.

Professor Alfred Huan (left in photo above), Executive Director of IHPC, said the institute will offer its expertise in data analysis, computational modeling and simulation. “We envisage the availability of such resources will lower entry barriers of capital investment, and allow quicker idea-to-market implementation.”

ICT companies can benefit from IHPC’s capabilities in several ways. For example:

• Big data analysis: IHPC researchers are developing cloud-based platforms and tools which allow businesses to run data analytics with better performance and at less cost compared to traditional IT solutions. The speed, reliability and feasibility of large-scale data processing can be improved by dynamically optimising and scheduling the computational processes on cloud infrastructure such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 or Windows Azure. Such technologies can can then be applied in sectors such as aerospace, transport, surveillance, and healthcare.
• Brand-centric social media analysis: Customer-facing organisations can make use of a social media analyser to monitor, track and analyse near-to-real time social media perceptions about their businesses and identify emerging pertinent social media trends. These tools and methods can also be tailored to the needs of specific organisations to achieve more accurate results.
• Complex systems modeling: An analyser of multiple simulated scenarios will allow companies, for example, in the transport or logistic industries, to make faster decisions, thereby lowering costs and enhancing productivity. The solution is powered by a scalable complex modeling technique that won the IHPC scientists the top prize from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2013.

IDA also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Data Storage Institute (DSI) on 12 September to help cloud service providers and data centres leverage DSI’s R&D capabilities to achieve scalable, high performance and cost-effective services, and be energy efficient through the integration of emerging disk technologies such as hybrid drives and next generation non-volatile memory technologies into the data centre architecture.

The use of hybrid drives in enterprise storage system enables service providers to deliver high data storage performance at lower energy consumption. The deployment of next-generation non-volatile memory into storage and computer system architectures will offer systems with very fast response times as data can now be accessed at memory-like speed. Such systems are suitable for high-speed processing such as real-time analytics and financial trading.

“The adoption of cloud computing is radically transforming the technological landscape and the ability to achieve greater affordability and on-demand scalability. A green and secured foundation in cloud architecture remains critical in staying ahead of this digital paradigm shift,” said Dr Pantelis Alexopoulos, Executive Director of DSI. “We are committed to a long-term vision in improving cloud services and endeavour to support the ICT industry by taking this step forward.”

The solutions developed under these partnerships will build upon the foundations laid by the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) and IDA’s cloud computing infrastructure. IDA will also facilitate the collaboration process with the ICT industry through its Technology Evaluation Programme, which allows ICT companies to develop cloud-based solutions.

“A crucial factor for increasing the success of Singapore-based information technology companies is for them to constantly differentiate themselves from their competitors through innovative solutions. IDA will help technology companies pursue innovative new products by better exploiting some of the great R&D outcomes generated in Singapore,” said Mr Steve Leonard, Executive Deputy Chairman of IDA. “We will also explore ways we can more actively use tools such as ‘crowdsourcing’ and ‘crowdtesting’ platforms to increase collaboration among our local startups, research institutions, and universities.”