HPC on dEmandThere is a wide choice of providers!

tHE lonG oVErdUE UBErCloUd An experiment intended to make HPC on Demand more easily understood and gain greater acceptance for it.

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Edition 2014| 01

1

“Protect me from knowing what I don’t need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don’t know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not

to know about the things that I decided not to know.”– Douglas Adams –

And here we are ... the journey across the almost unexplored galaxies and universes of our every-day numerical life continues. Following the wide-

spread and genuinely enthusiastic response to our “Numero Uno” in September last year, you now hold in your hands the second issue of “42” – a magazine from CPU 24/7 GmbH & Co. KG, which seeks to explain the world, life, the universe and everything. Which accounts for the name “42”.

And talking about galaxies, universes and everything ... where exactly do data flows go to? Is there an ex- planation for HPC On Demand? Is our Earth in reality a disc? Is there more than just vague truisms, cheap talk and dangerous superficial knowledge? The answer is ... “Yes!” And therefore, as digital pearl divers, we want to fish out those current facts that you ought to know about in the field of computer assisted calculation – and that you really should be aware of! So now let’s get started! And then let’s dispense with all the myths. ... nothing is too complex or too abstract for CPU 24/7.

We will explain our world. The way we like it. And we hope you like it too.

Here for your enjoyment is our latest “HPC-and-every-thing-you-always-wanted-to-know” magazine. So off we go, and then, of course, it will be your turn: we look forward to receiving your spirited, critical, emotional, positive, euphoric and constructive feedback.

Preferably personally. And it is always welcome.Yours sincerely,

Dr.-Ing. Matthias Reyer and Heiko HaenlerGeneral Managers of CPU 24/7 GmbH & Co. KG ||||

The answer 42 is the briefest and best-known quote from the novel and subsequent radio series and film ”The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. It is the answer to the author’s vague question about “life, the universe and everything“ which, according to his story, the largest computer in the uni-verse was required to compute, and did so with complete accuracy. However, this answer is of little use to the protagonists because nobody knows what the actual question is.Reference: Wikipedia

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Some things worth knowing

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Services

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36 neW GeneRATIon

38 THe SPeCIALISTS

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Are we really comparing apples with pears?

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However: an American study² revealed that only 15% of manufacturing businesses in the USA use HPC for their calculations and simulations, while 85% work

with desktop computers or with workstations under their desks. However, just under half of them admitted that the computing capacity was nowhere near sufficient to solve large, complex geometries.

there is definitely a market potential for HPC on demand So a demand exists and will continue to increase in the immediate future. In the meantime numerous providers have appeared on the HPC market, with a variety of dif-ferent concepts. Systems house, supercomputer centre or a specialist provider for industry and science – the range is an extensive one. When it comes to a decision the basic parameters are not simply the cost but also security, adaptability, choice of functions and the support that is available. Potential users should ensure above all that the HPC provider is the right one for the company and its needs. What is the current degree of utilisation of the sys-tems, and what should the ideal level be? Is the emphasis on especially fast computers or is there simply a need for a large main memory?

data security, data connection, the price ... – that’s what counts!When making a comparison, the choice of suitable para-meters is the decisive factor. CPU 24/7, in association with the Technical University (TU) Berlin, questioned a number of companies about the key elements concerning the use of HPC On Demand concepts. Data security, cost, usability, adaptability, hardware and software, as well as support and remote connection, were identified as the most im-portant factors – factors which also reveal a certain inter-dependence.

decisions about data security are mostly determined by the locationThere are some significant differences between the many data security providers. European providers tend to offer data protection based on European standards, complying with regulations such as those laid down by Germany’s Data Protection Law and the European Data Protection Directive. They guarantee adherence to national and European securi-ty standards. It is not generally known that the transfer of data may be subject to the export regulations of a particular country. This means, for example, that the industrial end-

user may have to account for any data that has been transferred. In this connection HPC users should always be aware of the physical location of the HPC data centres. Germany as a high security location? Its high IT security standards give Germany a significant competitive edge. An awareness of the importance of IT security is defini-tely this country’s USP. On the other hand costs are relatively high, and security made in Germany comes at a price! Energy costs alone for redundant infrastructure place an expensive burden on data centres. In 2012 industrial users in Germany paid 11.62 cents per kilowatt/hour for their electricity, compared with just 5.23 cents per kW/h in the USA³. Prices differ widely within Europe too. By way of comparison: in Germany the price of electricity for industrial users in 2013 was 18.79 cents per kW/h, in Belgium it was 13.05 and in Sweden 10.06 cents, in-cluding all taxes and other charges. A trade-off between cost and security!

Another problem in connection with the location is the need to ensure a sufficiently fast remote or data transfer rate. For most HPC providers the rapid data connections within Europe do not present a problem. The intercontinental trans-fer of data, on the other hand, can certainly be problematic if suitable data centre locations cannot be introduced quickly and flexibly enough.

the price is criticalThe price is also one of the main de-ciding criteria, especially from the viewpoint of financial controllers. As a rule the hourly rate per core is bet-ween 0.15 and 0.20 euros. In addition to invoicing per core/hour, volume packages are also gaining in impor- tance. Some HPC service providers do not attach much importance to comparability and cost transparency.

Monetary comparisons are only possible on the basis of the project costs. In addition to the per core rate another useful comparative value is provided by the rate per TFlop/s, as a means of contrasting the relationship between performance capability and the price of HPC clusters. Particular attention should also be paid to additional costs incurred by such components as traffic, data storage and support. Some HPC providers do not explicitly identify these additional costs, whereas they may be included in the prices quoted by others.Therefore all providers should give due emphasis to cost transparency.

Flexible or continuous?There are many facets to HPC On Demand. Among HPC providers two solutions have become apparent over the

course of time. On-demand means simply that the required computing service is only made available to the customer when it is needed. Customers decide on the duration them-selves, so that we find some HPC On Demand concepts are long term, while others can be short term, with periods of 90 days or more being regarded as long term.

And what type are you? If you only anticipate low utilisation levels, if your requirements fluctuate, and you only want to be able to deal with peak loads, reserving HPC computing

capacity on a short term basis will probably suffice. However, if your re- quirements remain high, the conti-nuous hire of HPC clusters with an intensive computing capability over a longer period may be the best solution.

Closely linked with this is the degree of individualization or the adaptabi-lity of each HPC system. This starts with the number of cores and con-cludes with the security level. What

use is the best HPC system if it cannot be made available on-demand? The speed with which the systems can be activated depends on the cluster size and the duration and, as a rule, this can be between just a few hours and several months, depending on the degree of individualisation.

Physical machines v. virtual machinesIn addition to data security, location and price, the per-formance of the HPC systems is also an important factor. Closely linked with this is the question of whether to rely on physical or on virtual machines. There are of course HPC On Demand providers who dispatch their clients into the depths of the virtual cloud, where they must then share computing capabilities with many other customers. Poten- tial benefits such as cost savings and more flexible IT >

According to a study carried out by the International Data Corporation (IDC) in 2013¹, the proportion of HPC On Demand users had risen from 13.8% in 2011 to 23.5% by 2013.

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deployment are among the reasons why virtualisation has become so important in such a relatively short time. How-ever, there is one thing that you should be aware of: most forms of virtualisation are based on hypervisor systems, in which the virtualisation software acts as an insulating layer between the hardware and the software. In some cases access to the hardware, whether to a CPU, network card or mass storage device, takes place via the hypervisor, but this can be accompanied by a loss of performance. The additional software layer results in diminished perfor-mance in terms of computing power, memory and network throughput. Throughput can be 30% lower than with a comparable physical server and, most importantly: virtual environments can never be faster than the underlying physics will allow. One other clear advantage of physical machines is the security that they offer. Especially in the age of the cloud it is comforting to know where the relevant customer and computing data actually resides, and that it is in safe hands.

Spezialisation v. generalisationThe focus adopted by the HPC service provider can also be of decisive importance for the end-user. Don’t be deceived: not all HPC providers are what they claim to be. In this respect the information available to potential end-users can be anything but transparent. HPC providers often fail to supply details about what or who the HPC resources are being made available for and, above all, under what terms. It is a question of the focus: making an HPC infra-structure available is probably not the problem. But this is not enough. Industrial and scientifi c applications in parti-cular impose special requirements on the infrastructure, the platform and the software. And a systems house, a supercomputing centre, a research facility or an academic institution may not be able to reproduce these require-ments.

Software for allThe focus by HPC providers also determines the range of available software tools, including the corresponding license models. This is an area where a number of widely differing joint ventures have made their mark. A provider that can demonstrate a superior range of software, in terms of quality and volume, and is able to respond to market requirements quickly and fl exibly, as in the case of on-demand licenses, will defi nitely have the upper hand.

the demand for simplicityHPC On Demand service providers frequently confuse usability with simplicity. Access to HPC On Demand and its use should be made as user-friendly as possible. It is the task of the HPC provider to create a suitable environment, one that genuinely only contains an integrated environ-ment. This includes providing a suitable client interface, unambiguous pricing, service and support, together with full integration of the relevant software tools.

Service as part of the business model?As systems and applications themselves become more homogenous and more extensive, so service and support become increasingly important. Here too providers have differing interpretations of what constitutes service and support. Some operate in accordance with the “do-it-your-self” principle, for some support is merely a stand-alone solution, while for others it forms part of the business model. If it important to you that all hardware and soft-ware components should operate not only error-free but also effi ciently, and that all installations are user-specifi c, then you would be well advised to select a service-orient-ed provider capable of responding effectively to individual customer requirements.

The list could probably be continued ad infi nitum. For some the conclusion might be: “You can’t compare apples with pears!” But why not? It is certainly worth knowing in what way providers differ, and what defi nes them in the fi nal analysis. After all, you are the one who defi nes the priorities! Let your wishes be known, because nothing is impossible. Mutual understanding is the key to the effective meeting of supply and demand. ||||

and tHiS iS WHat CPU 24/7 oFFErS YoU:|||| Specialised HPC services for engineers in industry

and science

|||| Ready-to-use remote work station with exclusive access to physical HPC resources

|||| All-inclusive package with HPC authority, remote access, storage, traffi c and support

|||| Resource Area | in the form of computing time that can be reserved online and is instantly available

|||| Tailored Configurations | in the form of constantly available, individually planned and adapted HPC clusters

|||| Maximum physical security and availability, e.g. from well-known and certifi ed German data centres

|||| Security and availability agreements adapted to meet the needs of individual customers

|||| Procurement, integration and maintenance of all software tools, up to and including license management

|||| Extensive range of servicesMore details on p. 34-35!

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|||| You should be aware that data centres locatedoutside Germany may conform to different data protection and security standards.

|||| Security costs money! Those who demand secu-rity must also invest.

|||| Data exports outside Europe may be subject to different export regulations (e.g. accounta-bility reports).

|||| It is worth drawing up a comparison of costs based on project costs! In this respect a key performance indicator is TFLOP/s. Be aware of hidden costs, e.g. for traffi c, support or storage.

|||| In the interests of security and performance, you should avoid making calculations on virtu-alised machines.

|||| HPC On Demand is particularly advantageous for those companies demand for computing services fl uctuates widely, or which anticipate continuously high system utilisation.

1 - International Data Corporation (IDC), 2013: HPC End-User Special Study of Cloud Use in Technical Computing.

2 - Council of Competitiveness, 2010, ‘Make’, ‘Refl ect’, ‘Reveal’, and ‘Compete’ studies.3 - International Energy Agency (IEA), 2012: acceptance case not defi ned, conversion at

1.28 US/€ (2012); differing from Eurostat due to differences in acceptance cases and exchange rate.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT ...

… in 1976 the fastest supercomputer,

the Cray-1, ran at 80 MHz?

Today’s cheapest cellphones have a clock

rate of 250 MHz.

… the Earth Simulator

can execute the calculations made

by all the computers in the

world between 1960-1970 in about

35 mins?

... musician Brian Eno composed the

start-up melody for Windows 95 for Microsoft?

He described the work on this brief piece of music

as “funny” and “amazing”. Eno has also colla-

borated with the band U2 and with David Bowie.

… a supercomputer takes approx.

40 mins to reproduce one second

of human brain activity?

… the K computer is able to

“count” the number of metres

in one light year in just one second.

… the name of the fastest

supercomputer in the

world, tianhe-2,

means Milky Way-2?

… in 1997 Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer

developed by IBM, was the world’s fi rst

computer to beat the reigning world chess champion,Garri Kasparow?

… if every one of the approximately seven billion people in the

world, using a standard pocket calculator, makes one

calculation every second without interruption, it would take the

whole of humankind 18 years to

achieve what the iBm roadrunner can

accomplish in one hour.

... 17% of all people even take

their laptops with them to the toilet?

... an error in the CPU in the Intel® P5 computers

meant that all the numbers between

824,633,702,418 and

824,633,702,449, when divided

by themselves, produced the result

0.999999996274709702 instead of 1?

... “arithmophobia”,

one of the most widespread but un-

known complaints affecting

humankind, is particularly prevalent

among IT specialists? This is the

medical name for fear of numbers.

... as a rule we spend 51 mins per week waiting for a

computer to perform operations?

Extrapolated over 50 years this adds up to no fewer

than 85 entire days.

... If computing capability continues

to increase at the present rate it is

likely that one single PC in the

year 2050 will have a greater

”thinking capacity” than the

whole of humankind combined?

... Bread box is the nickname of the

C 64. This was the fi rst affordable

home computer. In the 1980s it was

the world’s best-selling home computer.

It had 64 kibibytes of RAM, a disc

drive and an amazing 16 colours.

The CPU had a speed of approx. 0.985

MHz.

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An HPC On Demand provider who knows his customer’s requirements and is in a position to implement them using the necessary expertise, fund of experience

and adaptability, and a software provider working hand in hand with all those involved, and who can make the neces-sary software available quickly and without complications. It may sound simple but has not yet been entirely success-ful for a number of participants. In some cases this has led to a hasty decision to abandon HPC On Demand concepts. Infl exible licensing models, slow data transfer, data secu-rity and performance are just some of the key terms being quoted in this connection. And yet cloud computing has been an established feature in companies for a long time now. So why not in the case of HPC? But help is at hand …

Knowledge paves the way for acceptanceThe HPC Experiment – better known as the UberCloud – is a platform where engineers and scientists can exchange views, and which also reveals all one needs to know about the use of “HPC as a service”. The aim is to identify possible reservations and obstacles, and to eliminate them. It pro-vides an opportunity to actively face the challenges referred to above, to learn from them and to make them acceptable. The Ubercloud has been growing continuously since 2012 and already has more than 1,000 participants in over 60 countries. CPU 24/7 is also involved,as a resource provider.

HPC on demand as an experimentAnd this is how the HPC Experiment works. Acting together, a team, compris-ing an industrial end customer, a software provider, an HPC resource provider and an HPC expert, solves a specifi c applica-tion problem submitted by the industrial client. The process takes place in a number of stages, from a defi nition of the requirements and the implemen-tation of the experiment to a review of the results. The fi nal stage involves the preparation of a project report, which is then published on the homepage of the UberCloud. This is then made available to all the participants and an active debate is encouraged about the continu-ation of the project, any challenges and obstacles that may have arisen during the experiment, and most importantly of all, about the lessons learned.

Wolfgang Gentzsch is one of the world’s leading experts on HPC and is also the co-founder of the UberCloud Com-munity & Marketplace web platform. He has been serving companies for many years as a consultant on HPC, grid and cloud topics. He has also been involved in numerous German and EU research projects, and from 2005 to 2008 he headed the D-Grid project, which was funded by the German govern-ment. During the same period he was also director of the Open Grid Forum and an advisor to the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, set up by President Bush. During his period of tenure as a professor for mathe-matics and information technology at the Fachhochschule (Technical Collage) Regensburg, Wolfgang Gentzsch founded a company, GENIAS Software, whose achievements included the development of the HPC cluster management system Grid Engine, which was taken over by Sun Microsystems in 2000. In subsequent years he worked for Sun in California, serving as its Grid Computing Director, and afterwards head-ing the North Carolina Supercomputing Center. During this time he was also Professor for Computer Science at Duke University. ||||

WolFGanG GEntZSCH HAS DISCUSSED WITH US THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HPC MARKET AND THE LESSONS THAT HE HAS PERSONALLY LEARNED:

How has the HPC market changed in recent years?HPC is no longer just a tool for an elite. Although the trend for higher performance continues, and the exafl ops boundary is already visible on the horizon, nevertheless, for many years now, we have been observing a trend towards the main-stream, especially in the lower and medium HPC performance categories. Despite keen competition, as a consequence of the increasingly standardised hardware and software com-ponents, HPC systems here have come to resemble one another more and more in terms of the price, architecture, performance and the availability of user software. Compared with previous architectures, complex engineering software runs equally well on almost all HPC systems. This is a major advantage for engineers.

despite the positive development that you have described, do you also see any problems in connection with HPC systems? The entire acquisition process, for example, is arduous, as is the operation of such computers, the expertise that is required, and the effective management of the complex user software on such in-house computers. And not every company can afford such a computer, especially when one considers the total cost of ownership. For this reason over 90% of companies only make use of HPC on their work-stations, with all the associated restrictions that this im-poses. And for these companies in particular HPC On Demand (also known as HPC as a Service) presents an interesting possibility for using HPC for the purposes of design, develop-ment and production, thereby, for example, substantially reducing the time taken for companies to enter the market.

How can one explain the obstacles to the use of HPC on demand concepts among many industrial end customers, and why is this so?It is a fact that, despite the undisputed benefi ts of HPC On Demand, such as instantly available computing time when it is needed, and which and is only paid for according to actual use, some obstacles still do exist. These include a loss of control over the computer, the computer’s location, its use and the data it contains, and thus the general security of one’s own utilisation and data. Moreover many software producers have not yet changed their license models to on-demand. As a rule large amounts of data have to be transferred, which causes problems, in particular because of the ‘fi nal mile‘. Another problem is that of fi nding the right HPC service provider from the many that are now available worldwide. All of these obstacles arise from the fact that the HPC On Demand market is still relatively new and in principle is still in an experimental stage, in contrast to the general cloud computing market which, in Germany alone, had a volume in excess of 5 billion euros in 2013.

What led you to set up the UberCloud in July 2012?UberCloud began originally as an experiment. It was the previously mentioned obstacles with HPC On Demand that slowed down the development quite considerably. There-fore, working in association with my colleague, Burak Yenier from Silicon Valley, I began experimenting in the search for reasons and solutions. We invited the entire engineering and scientifi c community to actively participate in these expe-riments. In just a few weeks more than 160 organizations around the world had applied to take part.

Had you expected such an enormous response?Certainly not. We had hoped to be able to carry out perhaps four or fi ve experiments, but then in the fi rst round there were 25. Each experiment is conducted by a team of experts and accompanied by an UberCloud mentor, who can inter-vene in emergencies. As soon as an industrial user has applied to take part in an UberCloud experiment, the relevant software producer is contacted in order to obtain a test license for the three months of the experiment. A suitable HPC provider is subsequently selected and fi nally the ser-vices of an appropriate expert are obtained, who assumes responsibility for the project management and provides specialist support. The entire team then has three months in which to implement the industrial application in the HPC Cloud, to conduct several test runs for simulation purposes and to provide the user with the results. The team then con-cludes the process by summarizing it in a case study. One very good example is provided by Team 118 with CPU 24/7 as an HPC On Demand resource provider and Rolls-Royce >

The secret of the success of HPC On Demand would appear to be quite simple: a customer who is “brave“ enough to access his HPC resources remotely.

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as the industrial end-user. Working together, and using the simulation software ANSYS, they simulated the heat transfer in aircraft engines on an HPC system.

What are the short, medium and long term objectives being pursued with the UberCloud?By its nature our HPC community, comprising industrial and scientifi c users and providers, is split into many sub-com-munities, consisting for example of biologists, physicists, oil and gas researchers, chemists and construction engineers. Although their fi elds of expertise differ widely, they do have one thing in common: they require a great deal of compu-ting time in order to tackle their highly complex tasks. It is at this level that the UberCloud initiative seeks to bring these sub-communities together and provide THE community and THE market place for engineers and scientists.

Why participate in the HPC experiment?As with any other technology that is in its infancy, with HPC On Demand too we fi rst have to learn how to proceed with it and test its benefi ts for our business model. The UberCloud experiment was introduced to minimise the risks to all those involved. It provides a platform where everyone can try out their own test application on suitable cloud computers but without incurring any risks or costs. The only thing that they have to provide is the time in which to conduct the ex-periment. As a rule, over a two to three month period, this amounts to no more than two to three hours each week for the end user. In conclusion the team jointly produces a fi nal report, which can then be used internally, for example for making submissions to the management or by the cloud provider for marketing purposes. Everyone benefi ts in many different ways.

What do those who participate expect from their involve-ment? What are their various expectations and incentives?For the industrial user UberCloud provides a community and a market place platform, where one can obtain infor-mation about HPC On Demand, engage in discussions with colleagues, try out HPC On Demand and also buy compu-ting time at the press of a button. Apart from the last item, all these services are free of charge. In addition to these benefi ts scientists can also take part in actual industrial projects and contribute their specialist knowledge. The HPC cloud resource provider can use such experiments to further expand his platform and also has access to possible future clients. The software provider can try our various on-demand license models using actual applications and in this way pre-pare to meet the on-demand trend. With the virtual exhibition the UberCloud also provides all service providers with an interactive marketing platform which they can use to offer their services.

We are currently in the 5th round. How has the HPC ex-periment developed since the fi rst round?A total of 160 organisations registered for the fi rst round in 2012, and now we have over 1,000 organisations from 66

countries participating either actively or passively in the ex-periment. So far we have been able to form 145 teams and have conducted numerous trials, and now our system auto-matically identifi es suitable team partners for industrial end users. The entire process has also been subdivided into 22 sub-processes in order to enable the teams to progress with greater security. We also use BaseCamp, a project manage-ment system that provides each team with its own virtual and secure platform for cooperation. And fi nally, we have developed the UberCloud website, which is free of charge and supplies all the participants with a wealth of information and services from the HPC fi eld, relating to workstations, HPC systems and HPC On Demand.

What are the main fi ndings that have been obtained so far from the HPC experiment?Firstly the trend towards a “hybrid” computing model has be-come very evident. Engineers and scientists continue to use their workstations in order to carry out normal development and testing work and also for smaller simulation processes. Furthermore, today only about 5-10% are using their own HPC servers. Consequently, for the vast majority, HPC On Demand is available as an additional computing source. This trend is being driven above all by the following four factors: fi rstly the evident advantages of HPC and HPC On Demand for engineers; secondly through their own dealings with an increasing number of cloud services, in the private sphere too (“work imitates life”); thirdly through Enterprise cloud services within their own companies, which in the short or the long term raise the issue of cloud services for the R&D sector, and fourthly, a growing number of companies expect their small and medium sized suppliers to be able to offer more fl exibility, improved quality and greater innovation, and one way that this can be achieved is through precise computer simulations.

What are the lessons that you have personally learned from the UberCloud?It would appear that our community is happy to embrace a platform such as the UberCloud, otherwise we would not be seeing such a large infl ux of participants from so many coun-tries. This has also been confi rmed by the highly sought-after awards presented to the UberCloud at the Supercomputing Conference in Denver in November: readers of HPCwire magazine chose the UberCloud as the winner for the best example of HPC cloud implementation. On a personal level I have learned that the demand for our UberCloud platform is so great that we are now looking for further professional and fi nancial support to enable us to continue expanding the UberCloud in a sustainable way.

What should future HPC on demand concepts look like? are there any identifi able trends?Yes, the fi rst trends are already identifi able. For example some of our more than 50 HPC On Demand providers have already made considerable progress in developing a user-friendly web portal. Additional standards will be needed,

which our community is currently developing, in order to eliminate the different access methods for individual pro-viders, as seen from the user’s perspective. The end result, as in many other areas, will be an open and transparent market for HPC On Demand services, enabling engineers and scientists to fi nd the appropriate HPC On Demand ser-vices, and to compare, test and purchase them. ||||

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CPU 24/7, anSYS and rolls-royce deutschlandas team 118 in the HPC Experiment

|||| team members: Rolls-Royce Germany as the industrial end user | ANSYS Inc. as the sofware provider | CPU 24/7 as the HPC resource pro-vider

|||| objective: Experiment to link an in-house R&D code with commercial software, using as an example the calculations for heat transfer in aircraft engines | Investigation into the acce-lerated pace of this investigation on a remote HPC cluster system compared with a Windows workstation

|||| Challenges: To fi nd the right confi guration for the in-house code to enable ANSYS Fluent to be correctly executed

|||| results: Combining a commercial CFD tool with an in-house R&D application leads to a signifi cant speeding up by a factor of fi ve in the CFD section when compared with a Windows workstation

|||| Conclusion: Very good processing speed and excellent cooperation among all those involved | Initial calculation results within one month

literature

|||| TheThe UberCloud HPC Experiment: Compendium of Case Studies.

Intel, June 25, 2013.

http://www.hpcwire.com/whitepapers/2013-06-25/the_ubercloud_hpc_

experiment:_compendium_of_case_studies.html

|||| Virtual UberCloud HPC On Demand

Exhibition: http://exhibit.hpcexperiment.com/

|||| UberCloud website:

http://www.TheUberCloud.com

|||| The UberCloud Receives Top Honors in 2013 HPCwire Readers’ Choice

Award, November 27, 2013.

http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/ubercloud-receives-top-honors-

2013-hpcwire-readers-choice-awards/

|||| The UberCloud HPC Experiment: An inside look!. HPC Magazine EU,

March 2014.

http://www.hpcmagazine.eu/fi les/docs/mag/HPCMagazine-Euro-

pe-March-2014.pdf

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EVErYtHinG FloWS!

Everything is in a state of flux; everything is changeable and transitory. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or flow simulations provide previously unavailable insights into the motion of fluids. And this has many aspects – linear, swirling, turbulent.

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Nowadays computing services can easily be made available online within a few hours. How-ever, one obstacle remains: the need to obtain the necessary software license for the relevant simulation and calculation software. This still means that software remains one of the major obstacles in efforts to gain acceptance for HPC On Demand. One thing is obvious: the license model has to conform to the HPC resource! This requires coordination between the providers of the software and of the resources. These are

very obvious reasons why software providers should consi-der creating licensing models that more accurately refl ect users’ requirements.

In 2011 one of the leading consultants in the fi eld of technical research¹, predicted a signifi cant fall in costs on the CFD software market between 2010 and 2014. But is this really the case? It may be factually true, but is this what people feel?

Our knowledge too, our understanding, our innovative capability is continually developing, is constantly in motion: complex fl ow problems can be understood better with the aid of CFD simulations.

Immediate results, a reduced risk, faster product develop-ment, faster times to market. CFD tools reduce time and costs and provide greater security. Hazardous, cost-inten-

sive and arduous experiments can be replaced by CFD. And HPC On Demand augments these simulations by adding a vari-able component. Moreover it ensures greater accuracy, with accurately detailed results, with even fewer errors and risks. CFD and HPC On Demand, an indispensable combination today, if we just let it ...

It depends on the appropriate license!

Shrinking license costsCFD software has become a user-friendly application with a comprehensive range of functions and can be easily used nowadays by any engineer. However, experts believe that, although demand continues to increase as the range of func-tions expands, the market could be slowed down, especially by open source software such as OpenFOAM. Today’s com-panies have to fi nd the right combination of licenses from a wide range of commercially available software programs and license models, which are constantly increasing in numbers and improving in quality. In addition to scala-bility, user-friendliness and the desired speed, the right license model is another essential factor. Faced with widely varying license models, users’ complain in particu-lar about excessive complexity, infl exibility, high costs and a lack of transparency.

access via dongles, license fi les and license serversThose were the days! Do you remember dongles? Dongles were those little devices that were simply plugged into a serial interface to enable the software to actually func-tion. For technical reasons and because of the cost, soft-ware producers have abandoned the concept of dongles and have instead adopted methods that allow access to licensed software via local license fi les or through the network, e.g. via license servers. Local license fi les are installed on the local desktop computer and contain a key permitting use of the software, subject to certain limitations. The license fi les may be freely available or restricted to certain hardware. The most usual method of obtaining licenses is through license servers. These are computers holding the license fi les, which are accessed through a network. The license server can grant permis-sion for other computers to check out or use a certain number of licenses with specifi c features.

appropriate software for the hardware resourceOne question should always be considered by licensees: which software license is the most suitable for my HPC usage model? At what level are my systems being utilised and how often do I use the corresponding software? There are various license metrics, depending on the answers to these questions. It is probably not economically viable to acquire a new HPC cluster and the corresponding annual license just to cope with times of peak utilisation. A more practical solution is offered by a time-dependent license and corresponding resource usage. However, if utilisation remains at a high level it is certainly worthwhile obtaining an annual license.

licensee v. licensorLicensees certainly want license costs to be predictable and suitably scalable. They also want to avoid licenses that only offer unnecessary or insuffi cient coverage. Furthermore they want the acquisition process, installation and mainten-ance to be as simple as possible, with a requirement-driven distribution of licenses. Which is most suitable: a license-free, open-source product requiring adaptation, or a com-mercial but usually cost-intensive software tool? For their part the licensors naturally want to retain control over the issue of licenses and over adherence to the license regu-lations. This of course also includes market restrictions of all kinds. As a rule such restrictions are only applied in response to some kind of misuse. The introduction of the 25 mile limit by certain software providers, for example, is a reaction to the transfer of licenses to various locations within a company. Licensors often fi nd it diffi cult to keep pace with technical developments. The new massive-parallel architectures require the adaptation of existing license models. It seems that most licensors are lagging behind in this respect. >

Be HoneST:WoULD YoU ReALLY

RenT A CAR FoR LonGeR THAn IT

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1 - Technavio, 2011, Global Computational Fluid Dynamics Market 2010-2014

a step in the direction of the licensees The introduction of licensing packages represented a fun-damental change in licensing policy, replacing licensing per core, which had previously been the standard approach. For highly parallel calculations in particular the use of such packages can be both economical and profi table. They per-mit the parallel processing of simulations by multiplying the number of times it is possible to access a solver license. In this way the existing license pool is increased to 8, 32, 128 or 512 cores. But for small and medium-sized companies in particular this is a relatively cost-intensive approach and, under certain circumstances, clusters may be excessively or insuffi ciently licensed. Such packages are only recom-mended for clearly defi ned simulation variables and lengths.

HPC on demand providers acting as intermediaries and agentsBetween the licensor and the licensee there is the HPC ser-vice provider, acting both as an intermediary and as an agent. This is a relationship with a high degree of interdependence. No software without the hardware, and no hardware without the software. Clients have also realized this. Whereas in previous years it was customary to obtain HPC resources and software separately, today many providers of HPC On Demand take the responsibility of providing users with comprehensive packages. No losses and ready-to-work. Handling everything from the negotiations to evaluation, acquisition, integration and maintenance, as well as the support, HPC providers are taking on an increasing number of functions that end-users used to have to deal with them-selves. This is the only way to guarantee the best and most effi cient interaction between the software and the hardware.

node-lock licenses, fl oating or process-linkedTo return to the license metrics. Everything is available on the market, from node-lock licenses to fl oating licenses, and time-dependent licenses: a collection of the most varied possibilities but with little transparency. Faced with so many choices it is no wonder that customers are confused.

Node-lock licenses are available for certain applications, in particular if a certain degree of exclusivity is required. This kind of license can be prepared for a specifi c client. Using a single license key the user can make use of several sessi-ons with a product on the specifi ed computer. Node-locked licenses are ideal especially for small numbers of compu-ters or users, and if the computers are known and are not changed. Floating licenses provide dynamic access to various nodes, allowing several users to share the right to use a particu-lar software at various different workplaces. The number of licenses acquired by the company is entered on the server. If a member of staff uses the program at his or her work-station, the server checks out a license. Once the total number of licenses has been exceeded, the server blocks usage at the respective workstation. Thus the users com-pete for the licenses. Floating licenses are recommended in particular if there are large numbers of users who want to carry out simulations on many different computers, but not all at the same time.

on-demand licenses / pay-per-use – the demand for fl exi-bilityNevertheless, the crux of the matter is the duration and provisioning time of the license. What happens if the annual license suddenly becomes a rigid and infl exible entity? What happens if the license is only used for a few days, or even a few hours, on-demand? Licenses have always been and still are an expensive matter, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, which are unlikely to be able to afford annual licenses. Indeed, the latter are also hardly worthwhile because of fl uctuating workloads. Of course it is understandable that annual licenses are of greater import-ance to licensors than licenses issued in accordance with the pay-per-use principle. But times have changed, and HPC On Demand has an enormous potential, which could also be advantageous to software providers. There is a cur-rent demand for more fl exible models which are linked to specifi c usage procedures or are time-dependent. Whether they are for one hour, several weeks or three months, a genuine demand exists for licenses for a specifi c period of time.

CPU 24/7 resource area and nUmECa on-demand licensesA start has been made with the on-demand service from CADFEM GmbH. This permits the need-driven use, for a precise number of hours, of numerous CADFEM simula-tion programs. They are charged for strictly in accordance with the pay-per-use principle, but compared with license packages, for example, they are very price-intensive, mea-ning that the fl exibility they provide comes at a cost. CPU 24/7 and NUMECA International have also recognised that

a need exists and have created an on-demand portal for the Resource Area. Users registered with the Resource Area can book HPC resources and NUMECA licenses via an online portal for a temporary period, and access them remotely. Once the NUMECA customers have obtained their accredi-tation they are granted access to the computing services and to a choice of NUMECA on-demand licenses, all in accor-dance with the slogan “Keep it simple!”: easy to manage, no registration fees or restrictions and simple pricing models. One euro per core/hour for the license plus the hardware costs, the only costs incurred being those for the actual period of use. The price also covers additional services such as implementation, integration and the software set-up. A guarantee is also provided that the software is genuinely compatible with the resources in the Resource Area. “With the Resource Area and NUMECA on-demand licenses it is thus possible to work on-demand. Previously the license for the particular user software presented a problem, but now CPU 24/7 can really offer an on-demand service. We expect this to give us a clear competitive edge.”, says Matthias Reyer, CEO of CPU 24/7.

They are now commercially available. However, it is quest-ionable whether other licensors will follow suit. In the fi nal analysis the end user and companies such as CPU 24/7 can only hope, in the words of Tolstoy:

Let us hope so. ||||

QUiCK inFOQUiCK inFO

CPU 24/7 ...

|||| … offers you a choice of customized software.

|||| … promptly obtains the required license on request.

|||| ... integrates customers individual software,existing licenses and in-house codes with-in the system.

|||| ... takes over full management of licenses.

|||| ... carries out software upgrades / updates.

|||| ... ensures fully effective functioning of the software.

|||| ... supports the licensor in coordinating the software and the hardware.

“Everything comes to a good conclusion for those who

can wait. ”– Leo Tolstoy –

They are now commercially available. However, it is quest-ionable whether other licensors will follow suit. In the fi nal analysis the end user and companies such as CPU 24/7 can

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inteRVieWinteRVieWWhat are the developments and current trends concerning CFd license models? Customers are looking for more fl exibility, not only in terms of access and distribution but also in order to answer peak demands during projects.

are annual licenses for CFd software a thing of the past? World is changing but I assume that large organizations, driven by purchasing processes, will continue to work on annual budgets for a while.

When do on-demand licenses become reality?On-demand licenses become reality when a platform is able to provide direct and fl exible access to resources both in terms of software and hardware.

How does the concept of nUmECa on-demand licenses work?Every single customer of NUMECA can access the NUMECA On-demand service. After booking CPU 24/7 resources, the full portfolio of NUMECA products is accessible, in an unlimited way. Furthermore, software pricing is identical to the hardware resources model: CPU hours.

What are the benefi ts of using on-demand licenses?Users can access to all software solutions (grid genera-tion, dedicated software packages for CFD and Acoustics analysis) provided by NUMECA in a project-oriented way.

How does the CPU 24/7 resource area contributes to its realisation?The CPU 24/7 platform provides a seemliness access to NUMECA software together with a fl exible access to high-end hardware resources. ||||

a brief interview about trends and on-demand license models...

... WITH JaCQUES ParlonGUE, SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR AT NUMECA INTERNATIONAL, ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) SOFTWARE PROVIDERS:

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mYtHS AND TRUTHS

Some things you ought to know about remote computing

There has been, and still is a great deal of discussion about HPC On Demand, remote computing and cloud computing: some of it controversial, sometimes polemic,

lacking any significant facts and far removed from reality. It is therefore time to clear up all the myths and half-truths that have arisen over the years, because some end-users are still strongly opposed to using HPC On Demand concepts. And yet many of them are unaware that they are already making use of remote computing, for example in the case of companies with sites at a number of different locations. According to a 2013 report by the German Engineers’ Association (VDI), more than 44% are already using remote computing professionally or are working in companies that are preparing to deploy it. HPC remote computing as a wonder weapon?

11 statements on the subjects of security, costs, perfor-mance and flexibility that confront us every day and which we want to take a critical look at here.

Security

“Remote computing is not secure.”YES AND NO! In principle everything is possible! Apart from the relevant laws, such as the German Data Protection Law, there are no compulsory rules and regulations imposing specific conditions about the security and availability of your data. However, we at CPU 24/7 are making every effort to guarantee you the maximum physical security and availability. Our HPC clusters are located at German high security data centres, which have been granted ISO 27001 certifi-cation. ISO 27001 is a security standard that is recognised around the world as a guarantee of information security. The adherence to and implementation of this standard safe-guard the availability of your IT systems and processes and the confidentiality of your information. Moreover, risk and emergency management systems are also firmly estab-lished. The equipment in our data centres conforms to the level TIER 4 and includes a redundant infrastructure, access controls, authorisation concepts and video monitoring. We are always ready to meet our customers’ specific require-ments and can prepare individual security and availability agreements. If required, VPN encryption of data traffic will

provide a high degree of logistical security and, in addition, the hard drive can be encrypted or erased. Regular backups and redundant cluster components as well as patch manage- ment (planning and installation of security updates) also ensure enhanced security and availability. Security aware-ness is very much a part of our corporate culture, which is supported by the intensive training given to all of our administrators.

“Self-hosting offers more security than the outsourcing of your HPC resource.”NOT PER SE! Security is an elementary, basic requirement, especially with regard to the outsourcing of sensitive com-puting data. But where does security begin? Is it physical, logical or technical? It cannot be said that self-hosting is necessarily the safest choice per se. On the contrary: experts refer to the phenomenon of sensed or subjective security. Just because we have something in front of us it does not automatically mean that it is secure. Have you ever asked yourself who all the people are who are coming or going on your premises? What happens if your administrator

is suddenly out of action? Have you ensured the availability of professional monitoring and change management? In fact current studies assume that 80% of all server rooms in the self-hosting sector are not physically secure. Taking an objective view, according to a study by the Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (BSI) into the security of small and medium-sized companies, there are significant weaknesses in the way they deal with security incidents, emergency management and risk assessment. Can you really guarantee that your systems are operating securely, efficiently free from defects and are constantly available? We can! CPU 24/7 is an expert in this field.

“My data is somewhere in nowhere.”NO! No doubt there are some HPC providers for whom this is the case. One example is provided by virtualisa-

tions, where the user cannot know for sure where his data actually resides. But there is a clear distinction between CPU 24/7 and its competitors, and it gives a wide berth to customer and computer data that resides in cloud nirvana. “We at CPU 24/7 know precisely where our customers’ data is kept, with absolute certainty it is on machines assigned exclu-sively to them at one of our three high security locations in Potsdam, Hamburg or Berlin”, asserts Alexander Heine, COO of CPU 24/7. We are happy to conduct audits of our locations with our customers.

Costs

“Providing the hard-ware only accounts for

a small part of the costs.”SADLY THIS IS TRUE! It is mainly the operating costs, e.g. for electricity or cooling the HPC systems, that account for most of the expense. Moreover the relevant licensing costs for the software always have to be considered. These can be as much as 100 times more than the cost of renting the HPC resource itself. And then there are the insurance costs.At this point it should be borne in mind that other HPC pro-viders may impose additional or hidden costs for support, traffic or storage. CPU 24/7, however, offers an all-inclusive package, encompassing support, traffic and storage. You should also take into consideration the fact that it is only worthwhile making cost comparisons with other HPC ser-vice providers on the basis of the project costs and using a suitable key performance indicator such as TFlop/s.

HPC On Demand enables savings to be made on resource and costs.”THAT DEPENDS! Used properly the HPC On Demand concept can very definitely help to conserve resources. The decisive factor in this respect is the overall package. Of course, in the long term a number of individual components can become very cost-intensive. If internal personnel, expertise and infrastructure are available, it is certainly worth adopt-ing a corresponding in-house solution, although costs such as those required for support throughout the entire duration are often ignored. Another indicator is the degree of utili-sation of the systems. Outsourcing your high performance computer services is particularly recommended a) the more under-used and fluctuating your system utilisation is, and b) if you have a constantly high level of demand for HPC resources.

When HPC infrastructures are rented the investments costs are relatively low in comparison with the acquisition costs for your own HPC cluster. Less capital is also locked up as a result. Furthermore cost centre accounting is more accurate because the clusters can be used by several cost centres. One thing is certain: time savings can be achieved in every case. Depending on the size of the HPC cluster, in-house deployment takes approximately three months.

According to the size of the clusters, with CPU 24/7 an HPC remote environment can be made operational in 2 to 30 days. The engineers and IT personnel deployed in the acquisition, operation, support and maintenance of the systems can then concentrate again fully on their core tasks. CPU 24/7 is also prepared to take on the role of providing 1st (2nd and 3rd) level support. This releases more capital, time, person-nel and infrastructure for strategically important projects.

Flexibility

“HPC remote computing = flexibility”IT CAN, BUT DOES NOT HAVE TO! There are obviously two sides to the coin. Of course, making resources available in the form of capital, personnel or infrastructure allows more scope for flexibility, and then companies such as CPU 24/7 can react with greater agility to changes in technology, security requirements, compliance regulations, laws and demand. They have to realise, however, that flexibility does not always equate to availability. Using our Resource Area you can order computing services on-demand via a web inter- face, whenever you want, from wherever you are and just >

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the way you want them. However, one problem is common to all suppliers of HPC On Demand services: if all the resources are booked at a particular time the intended flexi-bility becomes a rigid structure and all one can do is wait, wait, wait for the next available booking period. Our Tailored Configurations, on the other hand, provide you with the maximum flexibility, if you define flexibility in terms of availability and individuality. For a specified period it makes an HPC cluster available that has been adapted to your own specific requirements. Specifying a particular duration, however ... well, as has already been mentioned, there are two sides to the coin.

“Outsourcing has rendered my IT department superfluous.”NO, ON THE CONTRARY! When outsourcing, one’s own in- house IT department assumes an important role as an interface between HPC providers such as CPU 24/7 and the engineers, and contributing significantly to the coordination and to adherence to the compliance regulations of in-house IT. For example, they continue to manage the work of moni-toring the rules governing usage and access. Moreover it is always worthwhile working together on new concepts with the HPC service provider, in pursuit of a continuous process of improvement.

“Remote computing does not permit individual solutions.”YES IT DOES! Making an HPC cluster executable is one thing, but making it able to respond directly to the requirements of engineers is quite a different matter. In accordance with his requirements and specific applications, the user has all kinds of choices, from the infrastructure (operating system, application software, network) to the security requirements. Each client is provided with his own ready-to-use, custom-ised HPC cluster, enabling users to start their calculations and simulations straightaway, in accordance with the ready-to-work principle. In order to give our customers an initial opportunity to find out what our services look and feel like we are perfectly willing to offer them a trial set-up prior to installing the system. In this way you can get to know us and our products without commitment, and test them in depth.

“Remote computing is exclusively suited to large companies.”WRONG. Nowadays small and medium-sized companies predominantly use workstations to perform their calcula-tions, but if more memory is suddenly needed, for example,

and the geometries become too complex, these computers soon reach the limits of their capabilities. So why not rent instead of buying? Most of these companies cannot afford to invest in their own, resource-intensive HPC clusters, and even if they do, these are not utilized efficiently. Especially for these smaller companies HPC On Demand therefore re-presents an interesting alternative, enabling them to carry out complex calculations without a large capital expenditure. The resources are limitless and are fully scalable, and can be set up in just a few hours or days, the pay per use system applies, better quality results can be attained and as a consequence, a faster time-to-market is achieved. Large companies, on the other hand, often invest in their own HPC systems, but HPC On Demand offers them another possibility for coping with peak loads within their projects.

Performance

“The performance of the systems suffers when remote computing is deployed.”NOT NECESSARILY! The rapid pace of technological develop-ment also applies to the HPC sector. Alone in the past two years the number of co-processors and accelerators has more than doubled. CPU 24/7 is always able to react quickly and flexibly to such technological advances. In order to guarantee the best possible performance we always use the latest hardware and infrastructure, and we also provide a one-stop shop for maintenance and support. In addition we

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are constantly carrying out analyses of the hardware and software, and adapting them in order to optimise the per-formance of the clusters. For example, cluster efficiency can be boosted by deploying a grid engine, improving load balancing and the job sequence. Proactive support enables sources of errors to be identified in time and avoids potential performance problems. In this connection we also colla-borate regularly with industrial enterprises and scientific institutions on various research projects, and they also benefit from the results.

“The actual problem is the data transfer speed.”NOT IN EUROPE! One often hears about bandwidth problems relating to the transfer of data in connection with HPC On Demand. This applies both to uploading and downloading of data calculations and results, and to the use of visualisation software. In the field of Tailored Configurations we are cur-rently achieving transfer rates of 1 Gbit/s, and slightly less for the Resource Area. At least in Europe data transfer does not present a problem, due for example to the use of so-called backbones. Outside Europe we are able to introduce additional data centre locations at short notice. Of course the data transfer rate does not solely depend on the HPC provider. However, problems are often hidden in the well-known final mile, over which HPC providers unfortunately do not have any influence. ||||

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HardFACTS

We ARe SPeCIALISTS, enGIneeRS, TInKeReR, ComPLIAnCe eXPeRTS,

CReATIVe mInDS, monIToRInG SUPeRVISoRS, TeCHnoLoGY SCoUTS,

ReSeARCH AnD ComPUTeR SCIenTISTS.

BeTWeen ConTInUITY AnD DYnAmISm

Commitment and trust:Our continuity is refl ected by our vigorously developing rela-tionships, in trusted structures and in collaboration based on partnership. Our major long term customers still rely on the services and solutions provided by CPU 24/7.

motivation and innovation:With more than 10 years of experience and expertise we are able to react to changes on the market with fl exibility and energy. We are thirsting for new ideas and are constantly sear-ching for new ways of offering you innovative and individual solutions.

research and expertise:In order to further expand our expertise and increase our knowledge we are constantly engaged in various joint ventures and research projects in science and industry, for the benefi t of our customers too. ||||

|||| Established: 2006

|||| Management: Dr. Matthias Reyer and Heiko Haenler

|||| Locations | Data centres: Potsdam, Berlin, Hamburg

|||| Employees: 25

|||| Contact: CPU 24/7 GmbH & Co. KG c/o Potsdamer Centrum für Technologie Dennis-Gabor-Straße 2 DE 14469 Potsdam Phone: +49 (0) 331 505700-90 Fax: +49 (0) 331 505700-92 Email: info@cpu-24-7.com

CPU 24/7 AT A GLAnCe …

What we do:CPU 24/7 provides custom-made high performance comput-ing (HPC) systems and computing capabilities, in each case with a ready-made workstation environment, either as conti-nuously usable, Tailored Confi gurations or as fl exibly book-able computing capacities by means of the CPU 24/7 Resource Area. Ready-to-work, on-demand and secure – for the benefi t of our customers.

For whom we do what we do:CPU 24/7 offers HPC computing capability, in particular for customers in industry and the universities, as well as for applications in science, research and development. Whether we are working for small and medium sized consulting engineers or for global players in the automotive, aerospace or marine sectors, we can supply everyone with the right, individual HPC cluster!

Who we are:Established in Potsdam in 2006, the leading lights of CPU 24/7 come from industry, science, research and teaching. From our many years of experience we are aware just how exact-ing the demands are that numerical simulation makes on the required computing resources. Today CPU 24/7 has a staff of 25 and is based in Potsdam, with data centres in Berlin and Hamburg.

FRom enGIneeRS FoR enGIneeRS!

»»

• Doubling of TFlop/s performance• Expansion of the Potsdam data centre

• New data centre in Hamburg• Increased involvement in new joint ventures

and research projects

• Expansion of the data centre in Berlin-Spandau• TFlop/s performance increases again by 2 ½ times• Joint venture with NUMECA International expanded:

on-demand licenses available for the Resource Area

• Doubling again of TFlop/s performance

neWComeR »» FAST CLImBeR »»

• Start of joint venture with NUMECA International

• New data centre in Berlin-Spandau• TFlop/s performance increases seven-fold

since 2009

• Introduction of the Resource Area as a flexibly bookable HPC cluster

• Established in Potsdam with equity capital• First major customer, up to the present

FRonT RUnneR »»

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SomE tHinGS WortH KnoWinG SomE tHinGS WortH KnoWinG

Beginning almost ten years ago, CPU 24/7 began to create its own little cosmos in the broad expanses of HPC On Demand providers. A macrocosmic network of

experts, customers, partner and scientists. Nevertheless, it can sometimes happen that certain parts of this cosmos remain concealed. But it is these very components that make our CPU 24/7 world so distinctive. And above all it is the service component, something that cannot been physi-cally seen, felt, smelt, heard or tasted, in fact, completely invisible – truly a microcosm. A microcosm? A world in mini-ature? One that cannot be perceived, but is no less important for all that? Take a closer look. Discover the multi-layered, comprehensive service world of CPU 24/7: a world that has much more to offer than just providing hardware. Service is the key word, and it has many attributes: forward-looking, always transparent and highly capable, for the benefi t of all.

FUll SErViCEPART OF THE

WHOLE PICTURE

Hosting | HousingYou do not need a microscope in order to take a closer look. Physics provides us with all the rules. IT infrastructures and the environment of the HPC cluster require care in the pro-cesses of selection, deployment and start-up – what we call “hosting”. The set-up in the data centre often need other components such as a cooling system, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and recovery etc. – which we refer to under the heading of “housing”. A basis is created.

eginning almost ten years ago, CPU 24/7 began to create its own little cosmos in the broad expanses of HPC On Demand providers. A macrocosmic network of

experts, customers, partner and scientists. Nevertheless, it can sometimes happen that certain parts of this cosmos remain concealed. But it is these very components that make our CPU 24/7 world so distinctive. And above all it is the service component, something that cannot been physi-cally seen, felt, smelt, heard or tasted, in fact, completely invisible – truly a microcosm. A microcosm? A world in mini-ature? One that cannot be perceived, but is no less important for all that? Take a closer look. Discover the multi-layered, comprehensive service world of CPU 24/7: a world that has much more to offer than just providing hardware. Service is the key word, and it has many attributes: forward-looking, always transparent and highly capable, for the benefi t of all.

FUll SErViCEPART OF THE

WHOLE PICTURE

Consulting | CustomisingConsulting and customising make things more complex. This aspect includes analysis, conceptualisation, design and continued development of your HPC cluster, including all the appropriate hardware and software, the security aspects, support and licence management, the infrastructure and much more besides. What about your individual customer requirements? For us the world of consulting and customising also involves individualised, custom-made HPC clusters. Our staff will be glad to advise you on all these matters.

Service | SupportService and support represent the most comprehensive and, viewed from the outside, the most non-transparent, but nevertheless very central area, as far as we are concerned. What use would it be to provide the hardware and software if you were to be left to deal with it entirely on your own? This applies both to the installation of the user’s own, or specifi c software packages, as well as to regular updating and upgrading of hardware and software, the guarantee that the user software will function perfectly, recovery and the replacement of cluster components and guarantee procedures, equipment disposal and the erasure of data. Your user accounts have to be appropriately managed. Our highly trained and experienced administrators regularly maintain the clusters, thereby ensuring the highest degree of availability, 99%. Regardless of the services that you require, with CPU 24/7 you receive your own personal platinum support. Even at the consultancy stage we assign the greatest importance to service and support, to ensure that errors are avoi-ded right from the start, and ruling out any factors that could impair your satisfaction and the effectiveness of the system.

analysis | documentationAnd even when everything is running according to your wishes, CPU 24/7 service and support is by no means fi nished with its work. We regularly provide you with the relevant analyses and documentation for enhanced effi ciency. You can have your personal set of facts about your usage in black and white, in the form of analyses and reports (degree of utilisation, perfor-mance etc.). In this way the performance and effi ciency of your HPC cluster can be improved, through constant and regular monitoring of your microcosm. The interaction between the hardware and the software is also scrutinised. Regular system checks and pre-testing are the response. We do not wait to take action after a problem has arisen, because our aim is not just to get your system operating “again”, but operating ”better”. Proactive instead of reactive – one step ahead. And fi nally there is the analysis of requirements. We are constantly committed to ensuring that the HPC cluster meets your own individual requirements (security, availability, infrastructure etc.). ||||

What does this mean in end effect, when all these com-

ponents are brought together? What it means is: whatever

the operating system, supplementary software, tools for

optimised operation, and licence management – CPU 24/7

will fi nd the best possible solution in the macrocosm of the

digital world. Only when everything is a perfect fi t is the job

complete, because one item does not exclude another. In-

stead they build on one another, mutually infl uencing each

other. And all these efforts have but one objective: to make

your work easier. Seen in this way, our services also form

part of the bigger picture, and therefore they are part of

you too.

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SErViCES SErViCES

culations. The range is a wide one and in the fi nal analysis each decision represents an individual case in which CPU 24/7 assists you in choosing the most effi cient category, by providing a selective, advance analysis.

MEDIUM computers, for example, can additionally be pro-vided with FDR Infi ni-Band, or LOW computers with more memory. There is an extremely wide range of possibili-ties. At the present time a general trend is apparent in the direction of higher performance categories, especially in the case of time-critical, larger and thus more complex calculations, not only to ensure that your calculations are conducted smoothly but also to be able to react quickly to changes in the volume of orders.

The HiGH category offers you the latest and thus the highest performance hardware. The nodes are equipped with Intel® Xeon® processors and QDR Infi niBand and currently contain 20 cores. In addition to improved perfor-

nEWGeneRATIon

How we live up to the expectations of all

For our Tailored Confi gurations and for our Resource Area there are currently three different performance categories: HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW. We are frequently

asked to explain about these three difference performance categories. Well, not all customers are the same. User’s requirements differ widely with regard to their calculations and simulations, and we endeavour to meet their needs indi-vidually. We shall attempt to explain them:

Firstly this division into three performance categories enables CPU 24/7 to deal with its resources responsibly, because the life cycles of CPU products are getting shorter. This means that companies such as CPU 24/7 have to be able to react faster and more fl exibly to the latest developments. As soon as a new generation of processors is launched on the market, usually every 12-18 months, they are made available to our customers in the HIGH category. Hardware that was previously classifi ed as HIGH then becomes the MEDIUM category, while the former MEDIUM category is reclassifi ed as LOW.

On the other hand the performance category of our servers is the main distinguishing feature and is applied as a means of classifying the servers according to their performance levels. The various performance categories, their technical features and server confi gurations help to deal with wide-ranging calculation requirements, enhancing the effective-ness and the effi ciency of the work process. Among other aspects this applies to the processors, the memory and the network. In normal cases it is these three factors which determine the respective performance category.

The fi rst indicator of the correct performance category is the theoretical computing performance of the server (also referred to as nodes). This obtained from the number of fl oating point operations per second and is given either as GFlop/s or TFlop/s. The general rule is: the larger this fi gure, the faster the node, and the higher the performance category too. Similarly, in the case of the memory and network: the higher these fi gures are, the higher the per-formance category.

Due to our customers’ varying computing requirements, how-ever, the practical situation is usually much more complex, because these classifi cations are undertaken using our server. This gives us the maximum possible fl exibility and enables us to respond to a wide range of customer require-

ments. Customers may only want more memory, with the computing performance not initially being a consideration. However, there are other clients who always prefer the LOW category because this appears at fi rst glance to be a cheaper option, disregarding the disadvantage of requiring more time to perform calculations. On the other hand there are customers who specifi cally require the fastest nodes, even though the HIGH category is not necessary for certain cal-

HoW to ... ... read our product information table.

performance class

HIGH

meDIUm

LoW

Including platinum support, traffic and storage!

theoretical flops

480 GFlops

140 GFlops

85 GFlops

example hardware configuration

2x Intel® Xeon® e5-2690 v2 |3.0 GHz | 20 cores | 128 GB RAm

2x Intel® Xeon® X5675 |2.93 GHz | 12 cores | 24 GB RAm

2x Intel® Xeon® X5550 |2.66 GHz | 8 cores | 24 GB RAm

costs per core-hour

0.1499 euro

0.1249 euro

0.0999 euro

QUiCK tiPSQUiCK tiPS

You will choose the HiGH computing category if ...

|||| … you need the best performing hardware that is currently available in order to arrive at calculation and simulation results as quickly as possible.

|||| … you want to be able to compute several variations simultaneously.

|||| … MEDIUM servers are equipped either with an additional memory or with FDR Infi niBand.

You will choose the mEdiUm category if ...

|||| … your time requirements for high perfor-mance computing capacity for making complex calculations are not critical.

|||| … you want to be able to make calculations in situations where high performance computing is not essential, but you do need a great deal of memory and a good network.

|||| … a LOW server may contain slower proces-sors, but is equipped with additional memory.

You will choose the loW computing category if …

|||| … you wish to perform short, predictable cal-culation jobs that are not time-critical.

|||| … compared with your workstation, a large memory is needed, although the computing capacity per core is of lesser importance.

mance data, the higher category also substantially reduces the operating time, making them ideal for time-critical, complex calculations. Based on the theoretical computing performance, HIGH servers are roughly 4 times faster than servers in the LOW category.

On the other hand the mEdiUm and loW categories re-present the previous generations of processors (n-1 or n-2). At the present time Intel® as well as AMD architectures are available in this category. They are also equipped with QDR Infi niBand. MEDIUM and LOW are particularly suited for short, predictable calculations or for geometries that require a lot of memory up to a certain point, and they are equipped with a good network.

Whether the choice is for LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH, with CPU 24/7 our customers obtain the computing performance that they need, that is always ready-to-work and part of an all-inclusive package, i.e. the price covers support, traffi c and storage. ||||

With CPU 24/7 performance categories are used to classify

servers according to their performance capabilities. At the pre-

sent time we offer three different performance categories. HIGH,

MEDIUM and LOW. Depending on the performance category

that you choose, 8, 12 or 20 cores per server are available to

meet your computing needs.

Our servers are equipped with Intel® Xeon®

processors. The HIGH category offers you

the latest architecture, while the MEDIUM

category contains the previous generation

of hardware etc.

Depending on the performance class the hourly rate per core

is between 0.0999 and 0.1499 euros. The price is calculated

on the basis of the number of servers, the cores per server,

the duration and the price per core/hour. An example: Price =

number of server*cores per server*time block*price of the

performance class

Price = 1*8*6h*0.0999 euro/h = 4.80 euro

theoretical fl ops indicate the theo-

retical peak performance of an indivi-

dual computing node in an HPC cluster.

They are a unit for showing the perfor-

mance capability of a computer and

indicate the number of fl oating point

operations per second.

all-inclusive-package: Unlike other

HPC providers, our price includes sup-

port, traffi c and storage. The servers

are equipped with Infi ni-Band and are

externally accessible by means of a

data transfer rate of at least 100 Mbit/s.

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SErViCES SErViCES

From amateur IT enthusiast to an accomplished com-puter-using problem solver: this sums up Stefan Pioch’s C.V. A student who is also employed by CPU

24/7, he is the fi rst of his kind to join this supplier of ready-to-work, high-performance computing in Potsdam, and has been with them since August 2012.

The young IT student seized this job opportunity during a careers day that he had organised together with his fellow students at the University of Potsdam. That was almost two years ago, and with his bachelor thesis on the subject of “The analysis of performance- and power consumption-infl uencing technologies in high performance computing” under his belt, and given a good note, his own view has been confi rmed, that computer scientists are not nerds. In fact, they spend a lot of time working together with other people, communicating internally within the project team, and externally with the people who use their systems. Moreover, his own motivation for studying computer science has been reinforced by other reasons: fi rstly it is a genuinely inter-esting subject, enabling one to simultaneously make one’s hobby one’s career, and secondly it provides a good living, with excellent prospects for the future.

“I don’t have any other objectives just yet”, he says, adding that he is living in the present, with the net and the applications of information technology offering an almost inexhaustible variety. This applies to the technology too. With software, hardware and communication systems constantly changing and developing, there is no chance of being bored. His next objective is to gain his master’s degree, and then, at some time in the future, to start a family. He has overcome the fi rst obstacle, the transition from theory to practice, and he is delighted to be working in the fi eld of high performance computing. “That is why I did not hesitate when the chance came to work for CPU 24/7. You could say we searched for and found one another. CPU 24/7 is made for me, a company

where I can try out my ideas and also benefit from the com-bined knowledge of in-house experts, along with the latest technology.“

The particular strengths of this direct and open-minded thinker lie in his problem-solving abilities, and he also is held in high regard by his colleagues not only as a ’techie’ but also on account of his uncomplicated nature. Since he joined the company he has become even more involved in IT. As he explains with a laugh: “At CPU 24/7 I have also become acquainted with the day to day business behind the research, from accounting to customer services, the work of preparing for trade shows and also marketing. All this is fascinating, but now I love working on my computer even more, and there is no way I would swap it for anything else.”

Not even when he is away from his offi ce at CPU 24/7, when he can often be found sitting with his colleagues over a coffee, a beer in the evening, or joining in a works outing to the go kart track. Even in private, “none of us can really get away from our work, because it is also a hobby for most of us too.”

Throughout the discussion there is the same sparkle in Stefan’s eyes when the talk turns to IT topics of the pre-sent and the future. And that is really what it is all about: a passion for the job, with a smile on his face. “Given the over-all input it is difficult to sum everything up in three words, but not impossible. It is good that CPU 24/7 always has enough memory – small joke.” CPU 24/7, an outline in three words: an innovative and powerful research team and a thoroughly positive working environment, at the Potsdam Centre for Technology, the location for a whole network of software and IT fi rms, design and communication companies, including the solar and construction industries, the ideal place to gain insights into areas other than one’s own professional fi eld. His own personal conclusion is: "For students and graduates like myself CPU 24/7 is thoroughly recommended, 100%.“ ||||

tHE SPECialiStS@ work

“Be nice to nerds. Chances are you‘ll end up working for one.”— Bill Gates –

@ work

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SErViCESSErViCES

EVEntGUIDe

tEam (118) –W o r K !January 2014 – CPU 24/7, as an HPC On Demand re-source producer, success-fully completed the H P C E x p e r i m e n t ( U b e r C l o u d ) ,conducted jointly with Rolls-Royce Deutschland as the industrial user and ANSYS as licensor. The subject was the s i m u l a t i o n of heat transport in an aircraft engine using an HPC system.

H a l f w a y s t a g e i n t h e

C a P i ta l CloUd P r o J E C t : CPU 24/7 prepared and presented an interim report in mid-January in coopera-tion with the Te c h n i c a l U n i v e r s i t y B e r l i n and The Unbelievable Machine C o m p a n y . The project is aimed at freeing customers from a dependence on spe-cialist c l o u d p r o v i d e r s, thereby restoring their free-dom of choice.

Star G l o B a l C o n F E r E n C E in Vienna – Have you met our consultants? CPU 24/7 mixed with attendees from 17 to 19 march 2014 and answered many questions.

Let’s simplify your work!

maKE-oVEr For tHE

rESoUrCEa r E a The new Resource Area website went online at the beginning of March 2014 – intuitive, user-friendly and uncluttered design!

S i n c e m a r c h 2 0 1 4 , our new HPC remote resources i n c o m b i n a t i o n w i t h

n U m E C a

o n -d E m a n d liCEnCES!As a registered NUMECA user you can now e a s i l y r e s e r v e your computing resources online via the CPU 24/7 resource area,also b e n e f i t t i n g from a selection of NUMECA on-demand licences at just 1 € /core / hour.

The spotlight falls on CPU 24/7 from 4 t o 6 J u n e 2 0 1 4 . We are e x h i b i t i n g f o r t h e s e c o n d t i m e at the

a n S Y S ConFErEnCE &32nd

CadFEmUSErS’ m E E t i n G2 0 1 4 (ACUM Germany),this time in n u r e m b e r g.You can meet us here. The CPU 24/7 team is looking forward to a n e x c i t i n g g e t - t o g e t h e r.

CPU 24/7 goes Austria.

At a C U m a U S t r i a

– ANSYS Conference and 9th CADFEM Austria Users’ Meeting 2014 – we will be presenting our services on24 april 2014 at the beau-tiful Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna. T h e s l o g a n :

„Convergence – the future of simulations“.

t H E ”EXPan-daBlES“ – In March 2014 we again increased the area of our computing centre in Berlin-Spandau f o u r - f o l d !

naFEmS g e r m a n - l a n g u a g ec o n f e r e n c e

– Almost100 P r E S E n -tat i o n S over two days, 2 0 t o 2 1 M a r c h 2 0 1 4 , in Bamberg. Numerous keynote speakers and exhibitors from industry, science and research are ex-pected to attend.CPU 24/7 is also joining them.

a l m o S t 6 0 Y E a r S – the aSmE turbo Expo is now in its 59th year. We are exhibiting from 17 to 20 June 2014 in Düsseldorf.

From 23 to 25 June 2014

theintErnational

S U P E r -Com -PUtinG C o n F E r E n C E is again taking place in L e i p z i g ! S o m e 2 , 4 0 0 p a r t i c i p a n t s f r o m 4 7 c o u n t r i e s are expected to attend.CPU 24/7 will again have its own stand there.

Details correct as of: May 2014 ||||

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SomE tHinGS WortH KnoWinGSomE tHinGS WortH KnoWinG

Unlike the cult novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“, by Douglas Adams, you will not need 7.5 million years to leaf through this magazine and find

the answers to all your questions about HPC. Now we at CPU 24/7 would not be so presumptuous as to claim that we have found the answers to the question about “Life, the Universe and Everything“, but we are justly proud to be able to provide you, to the best of our knowledge and in 42 pages, with almost all answers on the subject of HPC. If someone asks you “What is HPC On Demand?”, you can reply ”42”! If you are asked “Where can I reserve or rent HPC On Demand resources promptly and economically?“

– your response is “42”. If the questioner wants to know “Where can I obtain a ready-to-use HPC work station, enabling me to can begin my calculations and simulations as soon as I have logged in?“ It’s easy! ”42”! ||||

PUBliSHinG inFormation

CPU 24/7 GmbH & Co. KGc/o Potsdamer Centrum für TechnologieDennis-Gabor-Strasse 2DE 14469 Potsdam Telephone: +49 (0) 331 505 700 90 Telefax: +49 (0) 331 505 700 92Email: info@cpu-24-7.comWeb: www.cpu-24-7.com

General Managers: Dr.-Ing. Matthias Reyer, Heiko Haenler

Company headquarters: Potsdam | District Court Potsdam, HRA 4292 P | USt.-IdNr.: DE253259444

Personally responsible partner:CPU 24/7 Verwaltungs GmbH, District Court Potsdam, HRB 20034 P

CPU 24/7 is a registered trade name of CPU 24/7 GmbH & Co. KG. All rights reserved.

PiCtUrE CrEditS

title und p. 2-3, 30-31, 42-43: © Mehau Kulyk | Corbis; p. 5, 6-7: © C/L | Photocase; p. 8: © complize | Photocase; p. 9: © Beate-Helena | Photocase; p. 11: © inkje | Photocase; p. 12-13, 32-33: © enot-poloskun | iStock; p. 5, 14-19: © Sabine | Fotolia; p. 16: © Maksim Kabakou | Fotolia; p. 5, 20-27: © SSilver | Fotolia; p. 5, 23, 25, 26-27: © ianlabs | iStock; p. 5, 28-29: © knallgrün | Photocase; p. 5, 32-35, 38-39: © Andreas Riedl

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