PENGUIN COMPUTING PENGUIN COMPUTING PENGUIN PENGUIN COMPUTING COMPUTING. When is HPC cloud computing right for you?

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When is HPC cloud computing right for you?

Four common challenges incite organizations to turn to cloud HPC resources:

1. Spiked workloads: variable and project-based

2. The initial investment for in-house HPC is too high—hardware, software, and personnel

3. Data Center costs – power, cooling, and space

4. Projects require faster resource scalability than in-house solutions allow

In the following case studies, learn from companies that successfully switched to the cloud for all of above reasons. Read about their usage before the cloud versus after the switch, the application of HPC capabilities to their specific needs, and their successful transitions to the cloud.

Case Study 1:

IMMI

IMMI designs, tests, and manufactures advanced safety systems for a wide range of vehicles. IMMI employs 1,000 people worldwide, including a small team of CAE engineers who perform analysis and simulation tasks on HPC resources.

Before switching to Penguin Computing on Demand (POD), “the biggest challenge was a limited in-house computing resource,” said Shu Yang, an applied mechanics engineer at IMMI. “It’s outdated and limited, and the in-house software license to use our main software application, LS-DYNA, is limited to the maximum of 6 CPU/cores.”

HPC uSage before tHe Cloud

» LS-DYNA software

» SGI Altix 330 with 12 CPUs

» Typical computing tasks:

» Structure analysis for internal product development, 12 hours or less per task

» Vehicle crash simulations that took days per simulation

tranSferring to tHe Cloud

IMMI’s greatest challenge in adopting HPC cloud com-puting was licensing for its LS-DYNA software. “After that, it was a fairly easy process to move our computing jobs to cloud computing,” said Yang.

“Our system administrators can help with all levels of technical issues during transitions,” said Tom Coull, se-nior vice president at Penguin Computing, “But because of the IMMI team’s extensive technical knowledge, get-ting them up and running on LS-DYNA was easy to do.”

reaSonS for SwitCHing

to Penguin ComPuting

on demand

» Access to large computing resources without large capital investment

» Hardware upgrades and maintenance handled regularly by professionals

» True pay-as-you-go service

» 24/7 access

» Friendly, quick customer support

» Easy accounting of HPC usage by project

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after tHe tranSfer

IMMI initially switched 75 percent of its HPC workload to Penguin Computing on Demand. Now, it runs about 90 percent of its computational needs on POD. IMMI’s engineers have shaved days off of their compute task times and increased their HPC usage threefold.

» upload time: minutes

» running time: 5 to 10 hours on 32 cores, vs. several days per task before the transfer

» download time: up to several hours

» Current usage: 23,500 core hours per month

Case Study 2:

Callaway Golf

Callaway Golf manufactures golf clubs for the professional circuit. The company employs approximately 1,150 people, including a research and development department that uses HPC computing for its modeling and testing.

“Callaway Golf is working to speed up the finite element analysis process for our golf clubs,” said Neil Hall, an engineering specialist at Callaway. To accomplish this, Callaway is using tetrahedral elements in the place of hexagonal elements.

“The advantage of tetrahedral elements is that they allow for automatic meshing of our 3D CAD model. This translates into a speed-up of one or two days in model creation. However, use of tet elements causes the FEA model to become about 10 times larger. This translates to approximately fifteen times longer to run times. This requires more compute power which is provided by the Penguin HPC cloud.”

HPC uSage before tHe Cloud

» 4 node, 16 core in-house HPC cluster

» LS-DYNA finite element software Time to results

Maximum number of concurrent jobs

Efficiency improvement in work flow

before tHe Cloud

4 weeks to 1 year

2

in Penguin’S Cloud

Shorter run times, with much finer meshes and more details in the model None

Less time spent in pre-process to modify or simplify the geometry

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» Hexahedral mesh: 15 hours

“The current cluster is not capable of running the larger tetrahedral models within the time frame we need,” said Hall. “With the tetrahedral mesh this same job would take about 225 hours. This was reduced to 7 hours on the Penguin cluster.”

after tHe tranSfer

Callaway Golf used a combination of Putty and WinSPC to interface with the cluster. Callaway Golf recompiled

its FORTRAN programs for Linux compatibility, and Penguin Computing wrote Python and Linux scripts to run the custom FORTRAN programs.

» tetrahedral modeling: 7 hours, compared to 225 before the cloud

» Hexahedral modeling: 30 minutes, compared to 15 before the cloud

Case Study 3:

Michael Waltrip Racing

Michael Waltrip Racing, the NASCAR team for champion driver, Michael Waltrip, designs and constructs race cars. The organization consists of approximately 250 members, with a four-person engineering and design group that uses HPC computing for fluid dynamics modeling.

“Space and management have been our two biggest technical hurdles with hosting HPC resources,” said Donour Sizemore, the director of track-side systems at Waltrip Racing. “In-house resources require signifi-cant budget allocation upfront. Hosted services are much easier to sell to our funding sources.”

reaSonS for SwitCHing

to Penguin ComPuting

on demand

» Computing power » Competitive cost » Implementation assistance » Automation Time to results Maximum number of concurrent jobs Efficiency improvement in work flow

15 hours 1

1.5 hours 3

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HPC uSage before tHe Cloud

» STAR-CCM+ software

» Simulating airflow over a racecar: thousands of hours on a desktop

tranSferring to tHe Cloud

Waltrip Racing initially moved 10 percent of its HPC usage to the cloud for a time-sensitive project. In the future, the team plans to move 70 percent of its com-putational needs to the cloud, as demand fluctuates. Waltrip’s current cloud process is nearly identical to its

previous in-house process. “The work flow hasn’t changed at all, which is a good thing,” said Sizemore. “But now we can grow and shrink resources with demand.”

after tHe tranSfer

»Time-to-results remained similar, but for more jobs run simultaneously

“Our overall usage really hasn’t grown that much,” said Sizemore, “but our ability to provide output in short bursts is greatly expanded. This allows us to quickly respond to changes in the industry.”

Case Study 4:

NEC Soft

NEC Soft is an information and communication technology company headquartered in Japan. NEC Soft part-nered with Penguin Computing to provide HPC cloud resources to a large Japanese auto maker with 150,000 employees, including hundreds dedicated to CAE or HPC.

Time to results Maximum number of concurrent jobs

42 hours 2

40 hours 3

reaSonS for SwitCHing

to Penguin ComPuting

on demand

» Quick scalability

» Experience with STAR-CCM+

» Credibility based on in-house cluster systems

» Timely and personalized support

“It was similar to adding between 40 and 50 percent capacity to our cluster.”

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This large Japanese auto maker uses HPC resources for research and development, design, and analysis of new car models.

HPC uSage before tHe Cloud

The auto maker has a budget of tens of millions of dollars for HPC hardware and CAE software. “Their challenge is to obtain a 2,000-core HPC environment in a short time,”

explained Shuichi Matsui, a manager at NEC Soft. “That is very difficult in the normal purchasing process of a big PC cluster.”

»PAM Crash software (from ESI Group, a Penguin alliance partner)

»Typical computing tasks: crash simulations including modeling of the human body

tranSferring to tHe Cloud

“The auto maker obtained 2,000 cores in just 30 days,” said Matsui of NEC Soft. Previously, the company took six months to obtain the necessary HPC resources. The company currently runs 100 percent of its HPC computing on Penguin Computing on Demand.

after tHe tranSfer

» Current usage: 1.5 million core hours per month

» 10-20 hours per task before the cloud; 8 hours on POD

“Our overall usage really hasn’t grown that much,” said Matsui, “but our ability to provide output in short bursts is greatly expanded. This allows us to quickly respond to changes in the industry.”

By using HPC cloud services, the auto maker also cut its HPC budget, previously in the tens of millions of dollars. “Their cost was cut off on a scale of one-tenth,” according to Matsui.

Time to results Maximum number of concurrent jobs

9 days 1

7 hours More than 20

reaSonS for SwitCHing

to Penguin ComPuting

on demand

» Short time to obtain new resources

» Flexible number of cores, available as needed

» Cost-effective for the auto maker’s budget

Gained the ability to calculate multiple jobs simultaneously and optimize jobs

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Penguin ComPuting on demand: tHe eaSieSt Cloud tranSfer available

There are three common reasons companies turn to Penguin Computing on Demand (POD): workloads with large fluctuations in volume, budgetary reasons (regarding the initial investment or ongoing costs of in-house HPC), or a need for fast scalability. In each of these situations, the long term cost of in-house solu-tions exceed the cost of POD.

No matter what your reasons are for switching to the cloud, the process is simple. Penguin Computing pro-vides you with complete support for the transfer to the cloud, including security, custom scripts for Putty, and our own browser-based management system called Scyld Insight.

We’ve developed a quick-launch, automated HPC cloud service that allows you to process jobs as soon as you sign up, with the option to interact with our support team at any time.

about Penguin ComPuting

Penguin Computing delivers integrated, Linux-based solutions for the enterprise and HPC space. Penguin Computing on Demand (POD) is a secure HPC cloud that provides virtual supercomputing capabilities on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Penguin Computing has won some of the highest awards in technology, which we appreciate, but the feed-back we hold dear is the praise from our clients, who have complimented our customer service time and time again. Call us to find out how we can help.

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