HPC & AI > Cloud computing
Tech Focus Cloud services
A round-up of the latest cloud technology and software available to researchers using HPC and AI
C
loud computing provides huge potential to scientists and researchers, who can use
the technology to access computing resources or new and emerging technology. Cloud can also help to facilitate collaboration, help organisations scale quickly and provide security and ease of use for domain experts accessing complex computing architectures – enabling researchers to get the most out of their investment in computing resources. Cloud technology has reached a maturity
level that makes it appealing to high- performance computing (HPC) users, lab scientists and engineers. Whether using public or hybrid cloud, the technology offers flexibility for users who can create or ‘spin up’ nodes with specific architectural requirements or use cloud bursting to
increase the capacity of their in-house infrastructure. It can also increase the agility of a company that shares data over multiple sites. Cloud provides organisations access
to emerging technologies such as quantum computing hardware without the investment in prototype technologies. Users can adopt a strategy to learn and understand how a computing system can impact their business using a pay-per-use model, which enables them to evaluate new technology and then scale as necessary. In the past, one aspect of designing and
procuring HPC systems was the need to create a balanced architecture. This means looking at the kind of applications that will be run on a particular cluster to try and match the requirements of applications
with the technologies that are needed. For example, some workloads require large memory nodes, high-speed storage or interconnects, or high- performance storage. Cloud HPC allows people setting up this infrastructure to make more efficient decisions, particularly if they are cloud bursting or developing a hybrid cloud strategy – as they can build their in- house resources to cater for 80% of the user requirements while using the cloud to provide GPUs or specific node architectures that suit a small number of users. This allows all applications to benefit
from this balanced architectural approach while still being able to cater to the specialised applications that have more niche requirements.
Cloud products on the market now:
Alibaba Cloud, founded in 2009, offers cloud computing and data processing capabilities as part of its online solutions. It provides services to thousands of enterprises, developers, and government organisations in more than 200 countries and regions. atNorth is a Nordic data
centre services company that offers what it says are environmentally responsible, power-efficient, cost- optimised hosting facilities and HPC services. atNorth offers scalable HPC resources delivered as a service, enabling its users to focus on their simulation applications and calculations without worrying about the underlying HPC infrastructure.
AWS provides scalable cloud infrastructure to run HPC applications. AWS says its virtually unlimited capacity allows engineers, researchers and HPC system owners to innovate beyond the limitations of on-premises HPC infrastructure. AWS delivers an integrated suite of services that provides everything needed to quickly and easily build and manage HPC clusters in the cloud to run the most compute-intensive workloads across various industry verticals. Cirrascale Cloud Services is a cloud services provider of deep learning infrastructure solutions for autonomous vehicles, medical imaging, natural language processing
34 Scientific Computing World Summer 2023
and other deep learning workflows. The company was designed to focus on helping clients choose the right platform and performance criteria for their cloud service needs. Define Tech provides cloud
services for users to manage their entire infrastructure from a secure, container- driven orchestration platform. Users can bolt on bare-metal servers, add high performance back-end storage and containerise mission-critical applications, with the aim of saving on costs, simplifying infrastructure management and easing administration. Google Cloud says its HPC
solutions are easy to use, built on the latest technology and
cost-optimised to provide a flexible and powerful HPC foundation that clears the way for innovation. Google Cloud enables users to scale their team and use pre-configured HPC virtual machines (VMs) to get jobs started quickly and with predictable performance. Google says its AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities offer users the ability to generate deeper insights and explore their results. The Grey Matter Connected Cloud is a pathway to ensure scientists and researchers are connected to the cloud. Grey Matter’s cloud solutions team can help users to build a cloud strategy and transform their business with the right licensing and cloud
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