Are you getting the most from your cloud provider?

In today’s data-centric world, high performance computing (HPC) is playing an increasingly crucial role beyond its historical research and scientific settings. Commonly used by researchers who require the data-crunching ability of supercomputers, HPC is now gaining traction among enterprises spanning industries from artificial intelligence and financial risk modelling to defence and space.

“All areas of contemporary research require access to advanced computing capabilities such as big data, data science and HPC,” said Professor Andrew Rohl, Head of the School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University.

Cloud-centric architectures introduce a new approach to problem solving by driving collaboration and digital dexterity—expediting time to market and helping organisations gain a competitive edge.

However, adopting a cloud-centric approach to your computing needs isn’t always a straightforward process. For any organisation embarking on a digital transformation journey, its long-term success might often boil down to the crucial first step of selecting a suitable cloud provider. One that truly understands your business needs can ensure the successful integration, rollout, and use of a cloud within your organisation for years to come. Get this decision wrong, and the risks can be dire.

While large public and private cloud providers claim to offer comprehensive services, they often only supply the infrastructure. You may be left to equip yourself with your own software and an extensive skill set in code onboarding and optimisation, job queuing, file sharing, and security in order to effectively leverage the HPC system. These often lead to hidden costs borne by you.

Experienced Australian provider offers client-centred, cloud-based HPC solutions

With over 19 years of international experience, Perth company DUG Technology (DUG) designs, owns, and operates a network of some of the largest and greenest supercomputing installations on Earth.

DUG offers private, cloud-based HPC as a service (HPCaaS)—pure performance in a secure, fully provisioned and fully supported environment with a focus on sovereign capability. DUG’s differentiated HPCaaS offering provides users a complete stack. This includes high-speed networks with low latency, innovative solid-state-drive-based storage systems and professional services such as code onboarding and optimisation, algorithm development, predictive analytics and modelling, and on-demand software support—all tailored to your specific computing requirements.

DUG’s HPCaaS includes not only support for the infrastructure but also bespoke end-user support for domain-specific workflows. This unique service includes benchmarking, tuning, and testing to ensure you’re using optimal hardware and benefiting from efficient and effective use of the platform. This offering also provides greater system flexibility by dynamically allocating resources for each task while maximising productivity, without the need for dedicated hardware resources per application. Ultimately, you only pay for the capacity you use, without any upfront capital investment.

Secure and green HPC

DUG has achieved ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications. These certifications validate DUG’s integrated management system (including the quality and information security management systems) to meet customer and regulatory requirements consistently, as well as manage information security risks in line with its business objectives and international best practices. DUG is committed to upholding international security standards and providing HPC solutions that are not only reliable but also client-focussed.

Running your workflows at DUG leverages the company’s patented immersion-cooling technology, DUG Cool. The green technology reduces the power consumption of computer hardware by up to 51% and uses 85% less synthetic refrigerants—DUG also fulfils the remaining power requirements of its hardware with renewable energy. This allows DUG to reduce its impact on the environment while extending cost-savings to its customers.

DUG’s green credentials have helped fuel decarbonisation efforts across many industries. For instance, the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) highlighted in their Sustainability Statement the power-saving benefits of DUG Cool, which helped reduce their carbon footprint and meet environmental, social, and governance requirements.

Benefit from tailored, efficient HPC solutions

Whether it’s accelerating the delivery of commercial projects, or providing researchers with the right tools to rapidly prototype novel big-data workflows, the experts at DUG are wholly committed to client success.

DUG recently entered into an agreement with LatConnect 60, an Australian smart satellite provider, to help enable their earth observation analytics services. HPCaaS experts at DUG provided bespoke professional services, such as code onboarding and optimisation, and migrated terabytes of satellite imagery data to DUG’s HPC environment, enabling data-processing tasks that LatConnect 60 weeks in the past to be completed in a few hours.

CEO of LatConnect 60, Venkat Pillay said: “The team and I at LatConnect 60 have been thoroughly impressed by the speed and scale at which DUG’s HPC offering has been able to support our agriculture analytics services. Data-processing tasks which took us weeks in the past can now be completed in a few hours. This is a game-changing development for us.”

In the healthcare sector, WA-based Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research investigates the diseases that most affect our families in the WA community and the world at large, such as cancer and rare genetic disorders. Their research workflows mainly involve bioinformatics, characterised by complex and unconventional data-processing techniques. DUG’s tailored HPC solution enabled Harry Perkins bioinformaticians to store, process, and analyse data their way. This step-change in HPC capabilities has helped them reduce project lifecycles and accelerate the commercialisation of their life-saving research.

Associate Director of Scientific Strategy at Harry Perkins, Professor Alistair Forrest said: “Trusting the technology to the experts at DUG, we can now get back to our number one priority—saving lives.”

You may choose to work independently or collaborate with DUG’s team of world-class research scientists, mathematicians, and software engineers who are available to help get your project up and running quickly and cost-effectively.

DUG’s unique and green cloud services allow you to focus on your science goals and support your broader range of business applications—everything you need to be successful.

Send an email to info@dug.com to learn how DUG can help solve your biggest big data challenges today.