At SC14, the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) and Red Oak Consulting announced a large supercomputer project with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. The project awarded a contract to Cray Inc. for a supercomputer with nearly 200,000 cores, plus options for future upgrades. KAUST benefited from NAG and Red Oak consulting during the procurement and planning processes of the project, and will continue to do so into the commissioning and acceptance phases.
The experience and expertise that NAG and Red Oak brought to our project was invaluable in ensuring the best value for KAUST while reducing project risks” said Gregory Newby, Manager of the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory. “I believe we ended up with a better solution as a result of their input. The NAG and Red Oak team went the extra mile and integrated seamlessly into our project team, offering advice and experience across all aspects of the procurement process.”
The team from NAG and Red Oak brought their track record of involvement in over 40 HPC procurement projects around the world and delivered impartial expert advice based on experience across the whole lifecycle, from supporting the drafting of the procurement documents, through datacentre planning, benchmarking, bid evaluation, and contract negotiations. The NAG and Red Oak team will continue to support the KAUST project through installation and commissioning, acceptance testing, and user support planning.
It was a delight working with KAUST on this high profile supercomputer project at an institution with a clear and ambitious computation-based research vision.” said Andrew Jones, Vice President of HPC Consulting and Services at NAG. “We were impressed with the commitment, capability and professionalism of staff across the KAUST organisation. We are very happy to have been able to add value based on our experience in procuring, managing and supporting other HPC facilities around the world.”
NAG and its strategic partner for HPC, Red Oak Consulting, are together able to provide impartial advice and proven expertise based on experience across any aspect of HPC – from strategy, to service planning, to technology advice, to software and algorithms, to performance enhancements. This support is available as consulting, professional services, delivery-focused projects, or training and has been delivered to customers around the world, across private and public sectors. NAG and Red Oak work with customers separately or as a highly effective and integrated team, depending on each customer need.
