Data scientists and developers can submit jobs to the AWS cloud in a DIY serverless fashion and MemVerge Memory Machine Cloud software will run the apps on Spot instances, says the vendor, adding that it will dynamically modify instance size as needed, with high-availability built in.
MemVerge supplies Big Memory computing software, combining DRAM and persistent memory DIMMs into a single clustered storage pool for applications to use with no code changes and run in-memory with less storage IO. It has developed so-called AppCapsules and in-memory snapshots which can can be used to deliver instant recovery for stateful in-memory apps.
MemVerge COO Jon Jiang said: “Memory Machine Cloud democratizes cloud computing by making it extremely simple to run apps in the cloud and by automating the previously complicated tasks of optimizing cost, performance, and availability.”
MemVerge says it set out to build software that enabled all applications, including stateful apps, to be serverless. The idea was that developers would never need to worry about configuration and optimization of servers or other public cloud resources, nor depend on another part of their organization or a supplier to do so.
AppCapsule technology allows MemVerge’s software to automatically move application runtimes across different machines and different clouds. It says this is the foundation for its Memory Machine Cloud software, making it possible for non-cloud experts to deploy, manage, and optimize apps in the cloud themselves.
Memory Machine Cloud eases cloud computing by making it simple to run apps in the cloud and by automating the somewhat complicated tasks of optimizing cost, performance, and availability. Non-expert users can have high-availability for non-fault-tolerant apps running on low-cost Spot instances, and have their workloads surf the AWS cloud to optimize cloud resource usage continuously during runtime.
AWS EC2 Spot Instances take advantage of unused EC2 capacity in the AWS cloud. Spot Instances are available at up to a 90 percent discount compared to normal on-demand prices, and can be used for stateless, fault-tolerant, or flexible applications such as big data, containerized workloads, CI/CD, web servers, high-performance computing (HPC), and test/dev workloads.
But Spot instances, as AWS spare capacity, can be reclaimed. Memory Machine Cloud deals with that through its SpotSurfer feature. This is a checkpointing and recovery service which gracefully recovers and restarts jobs when a Spot instance is reclaimed. This in turn makes it possible, MemVerge says, for long-running stateful workloads to run safely on Spot instances.
MemVerge customer Vince Pagano, a senior scientific programmer at TGen, said: “I was getting up to 80 percent batch failure rates with Spot EC2. Now with SpotSurfer we have already brought failure rates due to Spot reclaims to below 1 percent, and we are just getting started.”
There are three Memory Machine Cloud editions: Essentials which is free, Pro and Enterprise.
Essentials includes includes the Float job automation and WaveWatcher resource and cost observability services. The Float automated job management service configures the cloud for an app owner, with jobs taking 1 minute or more to submit. The WaveWatcher rightsizing function profiles resource usage and identifies opportunities for optimization. It enables workloads to move automatically to smaller or larger instances during job runtime based on their real-time resource needs.
Jiang said: “App users want to seize control of cloud computing and its cost without becoming a cloud expert or relying on another organization.” That reference indicated NetApp and its BlueXP Spot features to us.
NetApp announced Spot Ocean CD, a continuous delivery offering for Kubernetes, today. Ocean CD complements and extends Spot Ocean, optimizing delivery of cloud applications by automating deployment strategies across clusters and workloads. NetApp first announced a continuous delivery feature for Ocean, Ocean CD, in June 2021, when it automated app deployment and verification processes. It says the combination of Spot Ocean and Ocean CD extends its Kubernetes automation and optimization offerings to application delivery.
Memory Machine Cloud has achieved Spot-ready status with AWS and is integrated with the Jupyter Notebook and RStudio development environments and workflow managers such as Nextflow and Cromwell. AWS says this about partner Spot-ready status: “Amazon EC2 Spot Ready Partners enable customers to take advantage of Amazon EC2 Spot and unlock savings of up to 90 percent from on demand.”
Users can get started with the no-charge Memory Machine Cloud Essentials. A SimSurf Simulator function on MemVerge’s website – user registration required – provides insight into how the overall scheme works.
