[Beowulf] [OT] HPC and University IT - forum/mailing list?

[Mark Hahn]

> beowulf traffic itself is "noise"?  If you are thinking of a "list for
> university deans" or members of research support offices or departmental
...
> administerable and accountable should they get audited) -- then yeah, I
> think a new list or other venue would be very useful.

yes.  the overlap is minimal, I believe - I'd say the two approaches 
are even inimical.  someone who is primarily interested in big-A 
Administration will have values opposed to mine as a technologist.
as a random pot-shot, big-a people tend to have great faith in negotiating 
special purchasing relationships with a vendor, or believe that integration
is the high-road to success (or an end in itself).  I know, OTOH,
that a vendor who makes a good desktop may make the worlds worst compute
nodes, and that, for instance, the service requirements are nearly opposite.

here's my general conclusion about central-IT efforts: 
if the idea (centralized storage, whatever) is so good,
people will beg to use it.  if you have to force people to use it,
you are simply wrong in some way (perhaps subtly).