Executive Summary

On a yearly basis the companies acquired many new desktop computers to replace the many aging ones that have been used within IT departments. The individual performance of these units is unable to support modern task, as such the combined pooling of their resources will be the most suitable choice of reusing the units. Clustering these obsolete machines can be seen as an alternative to discarding and replacing them. A computer cluster consists of a set of loosely connected computers that work together so that in many respects they can be viewed as a single system. There are several varieties of computer clusters; namely High-Performance, High Availability and Load-Balancing Clusters. Each type offers different advantages to the user and can either be tightly or loosely coupled, depending on its type, hence, making the interconnecting of old computers in any cluster type(s) to be fulfilling and allow it perform the duties of a traditional high-end server. Cluster Computing offers scalability, concurrency, transparency and heterogeneity. Clustering saves money as to terminate or heap computers and to purchase new computers would be much more costly than to repurpose older ones. Clusters are usually deployed to improve performance and availability over that of a single computer, while typically being much more cost-effective than single computers of comparable speed or availability. However, to complement the research a High Performance cluster was created, tested and compared to a typical server computer. Based on the findings of the

benchmark test conducted, our clustered prototype outperformed the Xeon Blade Server, during the execution of 10 iterations at an average of 4.19 Gigaflops.The population of companies from diverse Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sectors within Jamaica were sampled and researched. A sample size of three was interviewed and compared; the research was conducted in the IT departments of an Oil refinery, Hospital, Telecommunications companies and Educational institutions. Each company was interviewed and the relevant information was recorded and compared to the results of questionnaires issued, to complement the project. The project highlights and focuses on five research questions, which were reviewed to sustain the interconnecting of older computers to offer the efficient performance of a thin client server. These research questions are as follows: 1. Investigate the performance delivered by the clustering of obsolete machines in comparison to a traditional standalone server? 2. Determine if high capital resources are required for implementing a clustered solution in Jamaica? 3. Identify the benefits of using a clustered solution versus a non-clustered solution? 4. Does a cluster solution have to be comprised of heterogeneous and or homogeneous system components?