Cray Awarded $128 Million Deal at UK MET Office

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CrayToday Cray announced the Company has been awarded a contract to provide the Met Office in the United Kingdom with multiple Cray XC supercomputers and Cray Sonexion storage systems. Consisting of three phases spanning multiple years, the $128 million contract expands Cray’s significant presence in the global weather and climate community, and is the largest supercomputer contract ever for Cray outside of the United States.

Headquartered in Exeter, England, the Met Office is the United Kingdom’s national weather service and is recognized as one of the world’s most accurate forecasters. The Met Office uses more than 10 million weather observations a day and an advanced atmospheric model to create 3,000 tailored forecasts and briefings each day that are delivered to customers ranging from government, businesses, the general public, armed forces and other organizations.

In their final configurations, which will include Cray XC40 systems as well as next-generation Cray XC systems with current and future Intel Xeon processors, the Cray supercomputers at the Met Office will have 13 times more supercomputing power than its current systems. The Met Office will use its new Cray supercomputers and storage systems for operational weather prediction and climate research.

We are very excited about this investment in UK science,” said Met Office Chief Executive Rob Varley. “It will lead to a step change in weather forecasting and climate prediction, and give us the capability to strengthen our collaborations with partners in the South West, UK and around the world. The new Cray supercomputers, together with improved observations, science and modeling, will deliver better forecasts and advice to support UK business, the public and government. It will help make the UK more resilient to high impact weather and other environmental risks.”

Consisting of products and services, the multi-year, multi-phase contract is valued at more than $128 million at current exchange rates. Multiple system deliveries are expected between 2014 and 2017, with the major deliveries expected between 2015 and 2017.

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