What is HPC?

"High-Performance Computing" (HPC) is the use of "supercomputers" or computer clusters for advanced computational problems that are either too large for standard computers or would take too long. An HPC system is essentially a network of nodes, each of which contains one or more processing chips, as well as its own memory.

A few examples of commercial HPC technologies are the simulation of car crashes for structural design, molecular interaction for new drug design, airflow over vehicles, and geological research for fossil fuel exploration. In government and research institutions, scientists use HPC in genetics and epidemiology research and are simulating galaxy creation, fusion energy, and global warming, as well as working to create more accurate short- and long-term weather forecasts.

The HPC Challenge

With the complexity of today’s cluster HPC systems, many organizations struggle with the challenge of system management as well as insight into the productivity of their huge investments. Industry analysts have indicated an industry-wide shortage of qualified system administrators with the right experience and qualifications to successfully integrate, manage and maintain HPC systems, as well as a shortage of software to make decision-making easy from administrators to executives.

“The major architectural trends in high performance computing -- from single-system-image servers to distributed clusters, and from single-core to multi-core processors -- have combined to make effective system administration a much different, much more complicated challenge than it used to be. To achieve optimal performance and utilization can require significant expertise in a wide array of middleware options. This has led to a shortage of qualified system administration talent for HPC markets." - Addison Snell, CEO of Intersect360 Research, a market intelligence and consulting firm focused on the HPC industry

The Solution

With its many years of HPC expertise, X-ISS has grown from system installations and deployments to a fully-developed management solution set for HPC clients. Our solution set helps bring your HPC systems under control by a combination of tools, skills and processes that we have gained from years of experience.

• ManagedHPC allows customers to focus on their core engineering or research, while providing the peace-of-mind that their HPC resources are being handled with care.
• DecisionHPC is a vendor-agnostic HPC Information Warehouse that provides real-time and historical information not only on system metrics but also on business metrics such as project costs, utilization, etc. – all across a distributed, heterogeneous environment.
• ProjectHPC provides assistance to get your HPC systems designed and running quickly and optimally. This includes our specialized systems such as high resolution Visualization Walls.

For information about our HPC services, click here or contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .