Moore's Law and Clusters

If you're considering making a cluster purchase, don't forget Moore's Law, the computing axiom that states computer processing power doubles roughly every 18 months. Gordon Moore made his famous observation -- of an exponential growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit -- in 1965 and predicted that this trend would continue, as it has.

Because of Moore's Law, it can be demonstrated that it is more cost-effective to purchase small clusters more frequently than to purchase a very large cluster infrequently.

A cluster's ROI depends on how quickly it is deployed and gets into production. As with all other kinds of equipment, time reduces the value of computing assets. The value of servers drops quickly as newer, faster versions enter the market. So, if it takes three months to get your cluster up and running, it follows that newly bought equipment would be 15 percent faster. The point is clear -- to get the most value out of your cluster, it needs to be up and running quickly. (See Figure 2.)