I am wondering if there are clusters available to rent.
Scenario:
We have a program that will take what we estimate a week to run(after optimization) on a given file. Quite possibly, longer. Unfortunately, we also need to do approximately 300+ different files, resulting in approximately 300 weeks of compute time(roundable to 6 wallclock years of continuously running job). For a research job that should be done - at the latest - by December, that's simply unacceptable. While we are exploring other options, I am investigating the option of simply renting a Beowulf cluster. The job is academic and will lead towards the completion of a PhD.
What would be ideal would be a company that we send the source and the job files to the company and then receive a week or two later the result files. Voila!
Quick googling doesn't turn up anything terribly promising.
Suggested Solutions?
Cloud computing sounds like what you need. Amazon, Microsoft and Google rent computer resources on a pay for what you use basis.
Amazon's service is the most mature, and there are several questions already about Amazon's service, EG here and here.