Andrew's Corner: How to Stand Out in HPC

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Andrew Jones, VP of HPC at Numerical Algorithms Group, has yet again hit the proverbial nail on the head with this month’s ZDNet article.  How do you, as an HPC consumer, technically differentiate yourself in the HPC landscape?  Those of you reading this from a comfy chair within the walls of a national laboratory may scoff at the question.  Your machines are differentiated from day one.  However, those of you utilizing/managing HPC resources in a commercial organization dance to a different tune.  The entire argument behind procuring high performance computing systems is to differentiate oneself to the eventual customer and subsequently gain a competitive edge.

Andrew lays out several highly pertinent questions in his article geared toward understanding the “how and why of your operations.”  I believe, more importantly, he addresses the issue of how businesses commonly view high performance computing.  Specifically, how they integrate into the their normal business operations.

Two final notes of caution. First, HPC is one of the fastest-innovating technology areas around, so the balance needs to be reviewed regularly. Second, and most important, make sure you consider the whole of HPC — not just hardware, but the equally important people, software and interfacing business processes.” [Andrew Jones]

As always, the article is a pleasure to read from a great individual deeply involved in the HPC community.  Head over to ZDNet/UK and take a read here.