Offering HPCaaS gives more people power for societal change

High-Performance Computing as a Service (HPCaaS)—the technology that made such a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic possible—is driving demand for high-performance computing (HPC) thanks to companies such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Dell, HPE and Lenovo, according to GlobalData. The leading data and analytics company notes that HPCaaS is making HPC—a technology used in a myriad of projects ranging from measuring the impact of climate change, undertaking DNA sequencing, and manufacturing safer vehicles—accessible to more users.

Beatriz Valle, Senior Analyst for Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, comments: “HPCaaS made history during the pandemic, making the incredibly quick turnaround of a COVID-19 vaccine possible. HPCaaS is making HPC more mainstream and opening up supercomputing to more users.

“Setting up and maintaining on-premises HPC facilities is very expensive, which means the majority of HPC deployments have traditionally taken place in the government sector, research or academia. HPCaaS unlocks HPC to private enterprises through flexible consumption models and through the cloud.”

The latest offering, Fujitsu’s ‘Fujitsu Computing as a Service (CaaS)’ portfolio, utilizes hardware running on the same central processing unit (CPU) at the heart of the supercomputer Fugaku, to run software applications that enable users to solve complex problems with AI and machine learning.

Valle continues: “With HPCaaS, users pay for the computing power they need through flexible, consumption models. Fujitsu is the latest infrastructure provider to come to market with this type of service, launching ‘Fujitsu Cloud Service HPC’. This enables customers to run their applications on Fujitsu’s PRIMEHPC FX1000 servers, which run on the same processor technology driving the Fugaku supercomputer, the fastest computer in the world. HPCaaS is enabling a greater number of users to access these types of technologies, facilitating innovation and driving new use cases.”

GlobalData also notes that demand for HPCaaS will drive worldwide sales of high-end servers, with this market reaching $9 billion by 2024.

Valle adds: “Demand for HPCaaS continues apace, and this is underpinning the high-end server market. As competition intensifies, with infrastructure providers and hyperscale cloud providers introducing new HPCaaS offerings, and with processor technologies such as Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) based processors continuing to drive the high-end server market, we can expect greater access to HPC to continue fueling innovation societal change through new use cases.”

CT Bureau