Everything we do on the internet - which is just about everything we do these days - depends on the work of clusters, which are also called pods.
When we stream a hot new TV show, order a pair of jeans or Zoom with grandma, we use clusters. You're reading this story thanks to pods.
So, What Is a Cluster? What Is a Pod? A cluster or a pod is simply a set of computers linked by high-speed networks into a single unit.
Computer architects must have reached, at least unconsciously, for terms rooted in nature. Pea pods and dolphin superpods, like today's computer clusters, show the power of many individuals working as a team.
The Roots of Pods and Superpods The links go deeper. Botanists say pods not only protect and nourish individual peas, they can reallocate resources from damaged seeds to thriving ones. Similarly, a load balancer moves jobs off a failed compute node to a functioning one.
The dynamics aren't much different for dolphins.
Working off the coast of the Bahamas, veteran marine biologist Denise Herzing often sees every day the same pods, family groups of perhaps 20 dolphins. And once she encountered a vastly larger group.
Years ago, off the Baja peninsula, I saw a superpod. It was very exciting and a little overwhelming because as a researcher I want to observe a small group closely, not a thousand animals spread over a large area, said the founder of the Wild Dolphin Project.
For dolphins, superpods are vital. They protect the travelers by creating a huge sensory system, a thousand sets of ears that listen for predators like one super-sensor, she said, noting the parallels with the clusters used in cloud computing today.
A data center with multiple clusters or pods can span multiple buildings, and run as a single system. Pods Sprout in Early Data Centers As companies began computerizing their accounting systems in the early 1960s, they instinctively ganged multiple computers together so they would have backups in case one failed, according to Greg Pfister, a former IBM technologist and an expert on clusters.
I'm pretty sure NCR, MetLife and a lot of people did that kind of thing, said Pfister, author of In Search of Clusters, considered by some the bible of the field.
In May 1983, Digital Equipment Corp. packed several of its popular 32-bit VAX minicomputers into what it called a VAXcluster. Each computer ran its own operating system, but they shared other resources, providing IT users with a single system image.
Diagram of an early PC-based cluster. By the late 1990s, the advent of low-cost PC processors, Ethernet networks and Linux inspired at least eight major research projects that built clusters. NASA designed one with 16 PC motherboards on two 10 Mbit/second networks and dubbed it Beowulf, imagining it slaying the giant mainframes and massively parallel systems of the day.
Cluster Networks Need Speed Researchers found clusters could be assembled quickly and offered high performance at low cost, as long as they used high-speed networks to eliminate bottlenecks.
Another late 90's project, Berkeley's Network of Workstations (NoW), linked dozens of Sparc workstations on the fastest interconnects of the day. They created an image of a pod of small fish eating a larger fish to illustrate their work.
Researchers behind Berkeley's NoW project envisioned clusters of many small systems out-performing a single larger computer. One researcher, Eric Brewer, saw clusters were ideal for emerging internet apps, so he used the 100-server NoW system as a search engine.
For a while we had the best search engine in the world running on the Berkeley campus, said David Patterson, a veteran of NoW and many computer research projects at Berkeley.
The work was so successful, Brewer co-founded Inktomi, an early search engine built on a NoW-inspired cluster of 1,000 systems. It had many rivals, including a startup called Google with roots at Stanford.
They built their network clusters out of PCs and defined a business model that let them grow and really improve search quality - the rest was history, said Patterson, co-author of a popular textbook on computing.
Today, clusters or pods are the basis of most of the world's TOP500 supercomputers as well as virtually all cloud computing services. And most use NVIDIA GPUs, but we're getting ahead of the story.
Pods vs. Clusters: A War of Words While computer architects called these systems clusters, some networking specialists preferred the term pod. Turning the biological term into a tech acronym, they said POD stood for a point of delivery of computing services.
The term pod gained traction in the early days of cloud computing. Service providers raced to build ever larger, warehouse-sized systems often ordering entire shipping containers, aka pods, of pre-configured systems they could plug together like Lego blocks.
An early prototype container delivered to a cloud service provider. More recently, the Kubernetes group adopted the term pod. They define a software pod as a single container or a small number of containers that are tightly coupled and that share resources.
Industries like aerospace and consumer electronics adopted the term pod, too, perhaps to give their concepts an organic warmth. Among the most iconic examples are the iPod, the forerunner of the iPhone, and the single-astronaut vehicle from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When AI Met Clusters In 2012, cloud computing services heard the Big Bang of AI, the genesis of a powerful new form of computing. They raced to build giant clusters of GPUs that, thanks to their internal clusters of accelerator cores, could process huge datasets to train and run neural networks.
To help spread AI to any enterprise data center, NVIDIA packs GPU clusters on InfiniBand networks into NVIDIA DGX Systems. A reference architecture lets u
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
28/01/2026
Top L-R: The Liars, Jazz Infernal, Living with a Visionary
Second Row L-R: Paper Trail, The Baddest Speechwriter of All, Crisis Actor
Third Row: The Boys and ...
28/01/2026
Music discovery should feel intuitive and personal. That's why we're continuing to give you more control, so you can ask for what you want, shape what y...
28/01/2026
Today, Charlie Hellman, Spotify's Head of Music, shared the following note on the Spotify for Artists blog that the company paid out more than $11 billion t...
28/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in partnership with the Oudtshoorn Municipality, invites aspiring and emerging filmmakers to apply for the Sediba...
28/01/2026
As demand for more complex live sports coverage grows, Balkan broadcast specialist MVP has upgraded its flagship HD1 progressive OB truck with the installation ...
28/01/2026
Airlines, cruise and tour operators double down on ad spend as Australians' prioritise travel
Sydney January 28, 2026 - New Nielsen Ad Intel data shows a...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Marshall Electronics launches the CV420-27X, its next-generation ultra-high-definition (UHD) IP camera, at ISE 2026 (Stand 4N900). Engineered for modern IP-base...
28/01/2026
Grass Valley has announced that Television Mobiles Ltd. (TVM), one of Europe's leading independent outside broadcast providers, has carried out a major refu...
28/01/2026
AI, graphics and virtual software power new production capabilities
FOR-A is bringing remarkable new technologies to FOMEX, the Future of Media Exhibition (ex...
28/01/2026
Continuing a longstanding collaboration, Riedel Communications and Nordic media technology company Media Tailor have once again joined forces to deliver a state...
28/01/2026
Pebble has appointed Paul Nagle-Smith as vice president for customer fulfilment, strengthening its senior leadership focus on customer delivery and operational ...
28/01/2026
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset has announced that leading Mexican broadcaster, TV Azteca is using Veset Nimbus on AWS as a disaster recovery (DR) playo...
28/01/2026
Ensuring it can keep pace with a rapidly evolving live sports market, Balkan broadcast facility provider MVP Most Valuable Production has upgraded its flags...
28/01/2026
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud solutions provider that powers and protects life online, and Yospace, the leader in dynamic ad insertion tec...
28/01/2026
The renowned Reykjavik City Theatre (RCT) recently underwent a major intercom system upgrade using Clear-Com solutions. This milestone project utilizes Clear-C...
28/01/2026
Luxembourg, January 26, 2026 - SES S.A. ( SES or the Company ), a leading space solutions company, acknowledges the credit rating action announced by Fitch to...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
28 01 2026 - Media release Screen Australia refreshes Market & Audience approach...
28/01/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Premieres a New Piano Concerto by Peter and Leonar...
28/01/2026
28 Jan 2026
VEON Notes Kyivstar Group Publication of Selected Full Year 2025 Fi...
28/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to host 2026 edition of its online event Demystifying EMC Rohde & Schwarz invites the global EMC community to join a crucial discussion on pre...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
The Wait Is Over: Teaser Trailer Drops for Jo Nesbo's Dete...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces a Fictional Miniseries Inspired by the Marta del Castillo Case
Entertainment
28 January 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to ...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Santiago Mitres New Film Starring Ver nica L...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Teaser Trailer for Berlin and the Lady wit...
28/01/2026
Stadtwerke Wolfhagen Modernize Customer Management with AEP.energysuite from Arv...
27/01/2026
Click for Japanese version
Tokyo, Japan - January 27, 2026 - Akamai Technolo...
27/01/2026
L-R: Jonathan Cuchacovich, Sonia Kennebeck, Alan Fischer, Daeil Kim, Andrew Sta...
27/01/2026
Today, Spotify is proud to support our partner Backline, an industry-leading men...
27/01/2026
With nearly 29 million monthly listeners and clear momentum on Spotify, Net n Ve...
27/01/2026
January 14, 2026
We are proud to share that 25 Ontario, First Gulf's commercial project located just two minutes from our head office, has been recognized ...
27/01/2026
January 22, 2026
First Gulf is excited to share that a full-building lease has been secured at 625 Bronte Rd in Oakville, part of Bronte Station Business Park,...
27/01/2026
January 23, 2026
First Gulf continues to demonstrate its commitment to high-performance, sustainable real estate with 351 King Street East achieving BOMA BEST ...
27/01/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
27/01/2026
Nielsen will continue to drive growth and provide local audience measurement
in...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Amagi Media Labs Limited, the only cloud-native SaaS provider offering end-to-end solutions across live production, content preparation, distribution, and monet...
27/01/2026
Miri Technologies Inc. today unveiled its V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP distribution. Designed ...
27/01/2026
The Paul E. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell in Massachusetts has chosen Ikegami cameras for incorporation into its broadcast-quality television production facili...
Everything we do on the internet - which is just about everything we do these days - depends on the work of clusters, which are also called pods.
