Moving from a desktop oriented computing environment to a cluster based environment has it challenges for some organizations. However, a number of companies are aware of the benefits and are progressing in the move to a cluster based technical computing system.
A recent survey conducted by Desktop Engineering found that only a small number of respondents were familiar with the benefits of using an HPC type infrastructure to aid in their work. For companies running compute and data intensive jobs which was less than 20 %, over 75 % of those did not have a compute cluster available. This seems like an obvious opportunity for vendors in this market. In terms of where the applications are being run, about two-thirds are using both workstations and clusters when available.
Another interesting result of the survey is who actually manages the HPC cluster. About 30 % of the management of the cluster is done by the HPC users, not the official IT organization. The most popular use of the cluster in this survey was for the simulation of the complete system and large assemblies and models. Most of the time, the cluster is shared among members across the organization and not dominated by a single user or job.
What is also interesting is that a majority of the users are not using a job scheduler, which can lead to inefficiencies in the use of the cluster. In this survey, the two main barriers to adopting a cluster were that there was no budget to purchase new hardware and afford the software licenses, and the lack of a skilled IT professional to manage the cluster.
The survey results, conducted and compiled by Desktop Engineering is a short but really valuable read to get an idea of how organizations today see their workstation and cluster environments. For technical computing, moving to a cluster can unlock innovation and enhance workflows with the right management and workflow software. Download the survey results now.
