CAN OIL COMPANIES BENEFIT FROM DESKTOP SCAVENGING'S POWER?
High levels of activity in the upstream oil and gas sector combined with the increasing sophistication of tools employed to discover, develop, and manage hydrocarbon resources have led to increased demand for powerful computing solutions. One option for meeting this demand is to better leverage spare capacity available within an exploration and production (E&P) firm's existing computing infrastructure. This CERA Decision Brief reviews a practice known as desktop scavenging and concludes that
*Desktop scavenging has limited applicability in the upstream sector owing to issues of performance integrity, security, and more demanding system management and support requirements.
*The traditional means of delivering high performance computing in E&P (via servers purchased and tuned specifically for this purpose) will likely evolve to eclipse the advantages currently offered by desktop scavenging.
*The future of high performance computing delivery likely lies with external suppliers and a capability to economically match available resources with demand.
