How does cloud folding work?

[rickoic]

Does anyone know exactly how folding in a cloud works?

Point to an article as to what type equipment needed or something like that.

[JimboPalmer]

The EULA here demands approval from the owner of the hardware to Fold. That will be a problem on a cloud.

[Nathan_P]

Most cloud providers don't let you run DC projects on their hardware as its too much of a strain. If they do then i guess you wouldn't be in violation of the EULA as you have permission to run anything on the hardware

[rickoic]

But what is a cloud? Just a bunch of computers with large hard drives and how would they duplicate gpu's to do the folding?

Could someone make a small cloud at home?

[JimboPalmer]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

You could have a Home cloud if you have money to throw away. Most clouds are a for-profit company.

[schertt]

That's somewhat of an oversimplification of what makes up a modern cloud infrastructure, but sure. There's no CPU substitution for what GPUs do, the machine either has a GPU or it doesn't. Most consumer-level cloud services don't have need for a discrete GPU so it's not something they incorporate or sell to you. If you want the most realistic answer, go buy a bitcoin farm and sell shares of your compute time to F@H users.

[rickoic]

So basically a cloud is just a bunch of computers working together with lots of RAM and SSD/HDD space.

Here's a url I ran across:

https://serverfault.com/questions/20756 ... or-a-cloud

Sounds like a cloud is just a second or third generation of a farm. Each instance of folding would have to be tied to a gpu.

[Denisok]

In my practice many hosting companies and cloud providers Prohibit mining/crunching, but they might have special offers for miners/scientists/any other crunchers. You should consult if they ok with that.

[rickoic]

From what I've read and understand here is what a company does.

Purchase a bunch of computers with lots of RAM and many Terabytes of storage (SSD/HDD) tie them to the same router and let them share all/most information through the router. They then will rent portions of it to different companies/individuals for the storage and retention of files and information. With each file backed up to several computers/different storage devices the chance of total wipeout of any information is remote. The clients can even run programs needed across their companies from different locations and share the data input/output.

In the case of folding they put 2-3 gpu's in each computer and can then clients can run the number of clients they rent from the Cloud company.

So basically everyone folding with more than 1 computer can call it a private cloud.