Super Computing at your fingertips

The cloudSME Appcenter became connected to the HLRS in Frankfurt

Super Computing at your fingertips

The cloudSME Appcenter became connected to the HLRS in Frankfurt (Bildquelle: @stockphoto.com/Henrik5000)

One of the most compelling benefits of cloud computing has been its ability for on-demand provision of extraordinarily scalable resources, making High-performance computing (HPC) even available for small and medium-sized companies which weren“t able to afford the partly immense costs for the hardware, IT-maintenance or software licenses in the past.
This is exactly, what cloudSME focuses on. The cloudSME Appcenter, which was implemented in the EU funded cloudSME Project, provides its customers with the opportunity to use expert simulation solutions on-demand in their web browser (SaaS) while simultaneously accessing HPC resources through the cloud. Simulation is widely used in manufacturing and engineering from product design and product testing to process optimisation, but it usually requires high levels of computing power. Hence, simulation used to be prohibitive for small and medium-sized companies, although they could considerably benefit as virtual testing reduces the number of physical prototypes needed and improves the knowledge of one“s product or processes. This will decimate costs and lead to an improved competitive capability in the end.
The cloudSME baseline technology will allow for the software to be remotely accessed, to be more easily connected to other software or services (data, sensors, etc.) and to be run on multiple cloud instances (possibly with multiple CPUs or specialized processors such as GPUs) that can share the processing load of the software and deliver significantly faster performance.
The cloudSME Appcenter is the frontend of the cloudSME platform, which consists of two main components, the CloudBroker Platform (CBP) and the WS-PGRADE gUSE framework. While the latter supports the development and deployment of HPC applications across different types of Distributed Computing Infrastructures (DCIs), the CBP environment enables the deployment and execution of compute-intensive applications on a cloud and widely automates user, software, resource, job, and invoice management. It is suitable for any kind of batch-oriented command line software, both Linux and Windows-based, and both serial or parallel processing (via MPI for example). It can be accessed through any web browser and through different application programming interfaces (APIs) and it virtually supports any cloud infrastructure and the user can decide which instance he wants to use to run his job.
By now being tied to the HLRS in Frankfurt, which currently is No. 16 of the biggest super computer centres worldwide and No. 5 in Europe operating a 94.656 core CRAY XC40, the cloudSME Appcenter will complete its portfolio providing its customers with the most recent HPC technology.
Currently 29 partners (companies & research facilities) work on the further development of the platform, implementing their individual solutions and industry use-cases. With the so far implemented solutions, the platform covers four key areas in simulation, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation, process simulation (DES), 3D modelling (CAD) and data analytics. In January 13 new partners joined the 16 initial partners as the result of an Open Call. They will bring in another broad variety of industry solutions. Some of their new applications will use discrete event simulation (DES), offering solutions for the improvement of the intermodal freight transport, for example, allowing SMEs to improve the planning, design and performance of intermodal transport nodes and their related processes. A shelf manufacturer will bring in its own DES based solution, an inventory control and forecasting system which will enable other manufacturers using the same standard business processes to reduce the proportion of cash tied up in their stock. Soon, there will also be an advanced OpenFOAM-based CFD and Finite Element Analysis (FAE) solver solution available, which will enable the complex design and optimization of the rotor blades of model helicopters and drones.

Bildquelle: @stockphoto.com/Henrik5000

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CloudSME Project
Michael Sander
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