Hybrid HPC combines public and on-premises compute resources to offer organizations a flexible, cost effective approach to meeting their users' requirements. To fully augment on-prem HPC systems requires cloud platforms that can scale-out as bare-metal environments.
While moving all compute workloads from on-prem to cloud and back may be problematic for some, leveraging an HPC cloud can provide organizations with a variety of benefits, ranging from economic to compute capacity, offering users advanced technologies or temporarily increased capabilities.
The Value of a Hybrid HPC Approach
HPC clouds provide access to newer technologies than a traditional three year hardware refresh cycle would. Additionally, the right cloud provider can grant access to HPC expertise that will augment your existing IT team. To make the most out of hybrid computing, balancing and dividing the size of your on-premises systems to manage “core” compute workloads while using on-demand HPC cloud resources to run schedule-sensitive “project” workloads can be the most economically optimized approach.
The Importance of Singularity and Virtual Workstations
Two key technologies for hybrid HPC accelerated computing are singularity and virtual workstations. Singularity is an HPC Linux container solution that can be used to package entire workflows, software and libraries, and even data into a portable file. This enables users to encapsulate workloads into a consistent and reproducible format that can be moved to and from the cloud.
To provide a consistent user experience between on-premises and HPC cloud environments, virtualization requires exporting a Linux or Windows desktop from the cloud to the user. A consistent configuration of the exported desktop coupled with 3D graphics acceleration to support the graphics intensive applications typically used in the pre- and post-process of HPC data provides a seamless experience for the user.
The Economics of Hybrid HPC
Comparing the cost of on-premises and HPC cloud computing involves a number of factors, but one of the most significant is utilization. Utilization is the percent of time a compute resource (core, processor, server) is in use by the application.
Cost-effective HPC clouds only charge for the core-seconds that an application uses and the cost to store user data. On-prem costs include the capital expense of the cluster, network, and storage divided by the utilization plus operating costs (IT staff, power, cooling, facility).
Designing an on-premise cluster to meet peak demands without incurring application wait times for the users can mean that utilization will fall—often to the point where an HPC cloud will be more cost-effective. Balancing core compute requirements and flexible project-based compute requirements leads to an optimal solution.
Why Hybrid HPC Computing Makes Sense
HPC clouds can cost more than on-premise systems, but they offer benefits that justify the increased cost. These benefits include: immediate access to current technologies; minimizing time to deployment; dynamically increasing the capabilities of limited HPC IT resources; bridging a gap to a upcoming technology refresh; and mitigating restraints imposed by CapEx limits.
The most common reason that many organizations prefer HPC cloud solutions is that a dynamic, HPC-as-a-Service environment removes the burden of supplying a HPC cluster and storage solution with internal resources.
Reach out today and learn more how our on-demand hybrid cloud solutions help you reach your AI & HPC infrastructure project goals. Our team designs, builds, deploys, and manages high-performance, high-availability enterprise solutions, empowering customers to achieve their breakthrough innovations.
