Interview: T-Platforms on the Russian Road to Exascale

We continue our series of features on European HPC vendors with this interview of Alexey Komkov from T-Platforms, a Russian supercomputing company with global ambitions.

insideHPC: How would you describe the three main strengths of T-Platforms?

Alexey Komkov: Our company is one of the few players in the global IT market whose portfolio includes not only software and hardware solutions for clients of various categories, but also a wide range of supercomputer simulation and parallel computing services. This robust portfolio provides us with the ability to implement end-to-end HPC solutions: from design to installation, commissioning, and subsequent maintenance. In our activities, we give particular attention to collaboration and cooperation with customers of our new technologies and solutions, thus maintaining the strong spirit of innovation in the company.

insideHPC: What are some of the company’s highlights from 2011?

Alexey Komkov: Last year has seen several interesting developments that I would like to mention. “Lomonosov,” the most powerful supercomputer in Russia and CIS, took an honorable 2nd place in the Graph500 test centered on the evaluation of the effectiveness of high-performance computing systems for handling large volumes of data presented in the form of graphs. In addition, this system took 18th place in the latest edition of the Top500 global ranking of the most powerful supercomputers. Using the Lomonosov supercomputer, scholars and students of MV Lomonosov Moscow State University conduct numerous scientific and practical research programs in physics, chemistry, microbiology, and nanotechnologies, along with exploring Earth’s climatic phenomena and their relationships, and conducting special studies for the Government and many commercial companies.

Late last year we introduced a new solution, the T-Blade V-Class system, a universal foundation to build entry-level and midrange high-performance systems, as well as cloud data centers. We expect that in the near future, this system will be the main component of medium-to-high-performance supercomputer systems which are the most popular platforms in the Russian scientific community.

Also in 2011, we significantly enhanced our services portfolio to include the services for supercomputer modeling, optimization and parallelization of application software products. In addition, the construction of storage systems has become the focus for a separate line of business, and the number of our partners has increased to include such well-known leaders of the global storage market as Panasas, Net App, DDN and others.

In my opinion, perhaps the important achievement for T-Platforms is the company’s victory in the competition to design the first 10-Pflops computer system in Russia and CIS. This contest was conducted by MV Lomonosov MSU, and we, as the University’s long-standing partner, could not take this lightly. Note that we did acquire the right to design this system, and now a separate competition to select the contractor for its construction will be conducted.

We also won the competition to create the Rosnano Nanotechnology Center for the design of microelectronic components. This step will help our company to diversify its business and improve the competitiveness of the Russian microelectronics industry as we work toward developing in-house chips to be applied both within T-Platforms’ own solutions and in third-party high-tech products.

But perhaps the most significant event of the past year for us was the long-awaited entry of Vnesheconombank into our company’s capital. Cooperation with the strategic investor will allow T-Platforms to strengthen its technology leadership and raise the competitiveness of Russian supercomputer technologies in the global HPC market.

insideHPC: How is the company performing on the basis of financial results and market share?

Alexey Komkov: We strive to maintain the stability of financial flows while diversifying our profit sources. The last financial year saw increased investment in the development of new technologies, products and services. In 2010-2011, many potential customers delayed contracts for delivery of HPC-systems because of the global financial crisis, and therefore we expect significant growth in sales in 2012.

insideHPC: T-Platforms was recently named in an announcement about the development of Russian exascale technologies. Can you tell us more about this?

Alexey Komkov: Our company is part of the Russian HPC-community which is developing a comprehensive exascale strategy. As a leading Russian developer of supercomputing technologies and solutions based on these technologies, we are supported enthusiastically by the government and we are taking a direct part in the development of this strategy for different areas of science and industry in close cooperation with other players in the HPC market.

In addition, we have our own initiatives in exascale development where we are conducting the research independently.

insideHPC: What will you be showcasing at ISC’12 in Hamburg?

Alexey Komkov: We recently completed a new version of our Clustrx software solution to manage and configure computer systems. We are planning to demonstrate that, as well as a number of new hardware and software tools, at the forthcoming 2012 ISC Conference in Hamburg.

insideHPC: How important is the ISC conference to T-Platforms as the company moves to expand its business in Western Europe and beyond?

Alexey Komkov: This is a key marketing event, not only for Europe, but also throughout the global supercomputer industry. This year, it will bring together leading representatives of science, IT, and other communities and we look forward to participating.