HPC Building Blocks: An Evolution

Where HPC was once the domain of those with extremely deep pockets, it is the main force driving the innovations seen in science, technology, and big data today.  This is largely thanks to the commoditization of HPC components – compute servers, software, storage, and networking/interconnect.  However, in order to find the right balance of speed, capacity, and cost, many organizations and businesses are finding that working with an experienced partner is key to finding the right balance.  Here, we will discuss the various offerings from RAID, Inc. from the perspective of “HPC building blocks”.  Then, we’ll move into how important it is to have knowledge of how all these elements play together.

HPC Building Blocks

Parallel File Systems

Parallel file systems combine the bandwidth from many storage nodes to feed a compute node, which enables high performance via the use of various storage technologies and high-speed, low latency interconnects.  They also scale well as an organization’s storage needs grow.  We have deep expertise in GPFS, Lustre, Storage Spaces, and others.

Compute Servers

RAID, Inc’s compute servers come different form factors–1U, 2U, 4U, cluster servers, blade, high density fat nodes, and combined server and storage chassis. Each can be configured to meet your density, scalability, budgetary and performance needs.

Storage Arrays

Block Storage
We offer best-in-class block storage options for our custom HPC solutions.  These include the ARI-100 Series, lauded for its high density and virtualization capabilities, including autonomic storage tiering and rapid drive rebuilds; the ARI-300 Series for high performance enterprise storage, and the Xanadu 400s which is perfect for high performance in intensive bandwidth applications.  These workhorses are enabling our customers to leverage the benefits of new and legacy storage systems.

Enterprise JBOD
Many customers do not need most of the built-in features or intelligence of traditional block storage like those listed above. Instead, they need very low cost high density high performance storage containers. that can “scale-up” by adding more disks to a storage system and “scale-out” by grouping multiple systems together.

Networking/Connectivity

RAID offers a portfolio of networking/connectivity options to maximize the storage, servers and filesystems mentioned above, including:  Infiniband switch systems, ethernet and SAS switches.

Bringing HPC Building Blocks Together 

As you can see from the above, there are a lot of options that can go into an HPC environment. Knowing the optimal configurations and combinations takes a lot of time and testing, which is why we’ve had a lot of success in using a vendor agnostic, proven 6 step HPC solution planning process. We have helped an impressive list of clients speed their time to market, while lowering costs. In addition, we provide full installation and support.