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Category: Press Release

How Technology Helps to Forecast Weather and Reduce Wildfire Ignitions

By marketing@site-a.com

How Big Data Is Changing Weather Modeling and Wildfire Analysis – Updated September 2020

LAKE FOREST, Calif., September 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — In early 2018, PSSC Labs, a developer of custom High Performance Computing and Big Data computing solutions, in collaboration with Atmospheric Data Solutions (ADS), partnered together to design, build and implement custom HPC Clusters that could be used to assist utility companies as well as public and private agencies in predicting, mitigating and managing risk from severe weather patterns. This type of technology is absolutely critical in helping municipalities and government agencies in being able to assist in predicting and addressing wildfires like those being experienced in 2020 which to date has resulted in the evacuation orders of over 500,000 in Oregon alone. PSSC Labs HPC clusters can be used to analyze real-time data near wildfires, like temperature, humidity, and wind speed to help experts predict the movement patterns of the fire.

PSSC Labs is currently working with a number of large utility companies to quickly implement high performance computing solutions that are focused specifically on weather modeling and that have the ability to predict the potential paths of wildfires.  This powerful HPC computing combination of weather modeling and wildfire analysis has the power to potentially save lives.

Accurate severe weather and wildfire predictions require technologically advanced high performance computing servers and artificial intelligence (AI) and PSSC Labs has powerful custom solutions to help meet this need.  PSSC Labs’ PowerWulf Cluster weather solutions provide cutting-edge hardware that efficiently processes large amounts of data needed to train complex AI models for valuable wildfire potential forecasts.

For example, a government website called the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index developed in collaboration with a major southern California utility company, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and ADS forecasts short-term and long-term large wildfire potential. The Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index site advises the USFS and the public on approaching wildfire potential events using forecasted weather and wildfire-centric variables including dead and live fuel moisture, all of which are generated on PSSC Labs PowerWulf Clusters.

This highly developed solution predicted large fire potential during the busy Santa Ana wind season providing month-ahead and season-ahead forecasts that warned of above normal Santa Ana winds this past fall. The public received forecasts and recommended actions well ahead of approaching critical fire weather. The utility agency used this advanced predictive technology to create forecasts to reduce the potential for accidental wildfire ignitions in their territories.

“Big Data is playing a crucial role in weather forecasting and wildfire analysis. This advanced information is important because we cannot just look outside for the weather,” said Alex Lesser, executive vice president at PSSC Labs. “With improved technology and the ability to process large amounts of data comes better extreme weather forecasts, which can save lives.”

How HPC, Big Data and AI Impact Weather Modeling and Wildfire Analysis

Weather models require specialized computing platforms that allow parallel computations. The closer the model horizontal and vertical grid spacing, the more computational resources are needed. Timely dissemination of the high-impact forecast to stakeholders and the public also requires state-of-the-art computing hardware.  

PSSC Labs works with ADS to deliver cluster servers that are individually customized to meet the specific needs of each client. Key features of the PSSC Labs PowerWulf HPC Clusters include pre-configured and fully validated blocks with the latest Intel HPC technology and all the necessary hardware, network settings, and cluster management software prior to shipping.

Thanks to the processing power of PSSC Labs clusters, AI and Big Data can now play a key role in developing forecasting and wildfire analysis solutions that can prevent casualties. ADS uses AI to find relationships in data that can transcend the current understanding. For example, ADS uses AI to forecast damage to infrastructure during severe downslope windstorms that may occur during Santa Ana wind events.

“AI solutions are being built using multi-decadal historical atmospheric and land surface data at a close-enough grid spacing. This data allows for an intelligent historical ranking of a forecast which is one of the most valuable analytics ADS can provide a stakeholder,” said Dr. Scott Capps, Principal and Founder of ADS.   

“The solutions ADS are developing use a comprehensive blend of predictors that are important to large wildfire potential including dead fuel and live fuel moisture, near-surface atmospheric moisture and temperature, wind speed and gusts,” Dr. Capps, continues. “Our partnership with PSSC Labs provides us with the hardware platform to meet the demands of high performance computing in order to maximize accuracy and maximize the number of times models can be run daily.” 

According to Dr. Capps, the operational month-ahead and season-ahead Santa Ana wind forecasts are the first such solution.

For more information visit https://www.site-a.com/solutions/hpc-cluster/

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pssc-labs-and-atmospheric-data-solutions-deliver-hpc-clusters-to-forecast-weather-and-reduce-wildfire-ignitions-300588776.html?tc=eml_cleartim

PSSC Labs Named Ansys Preferred Solution Partner

By marketing@site-a.com

LAKE FOREST, CALIF., July 23, 2020 — PSSC Labs, a developer of high performance computing (HPC) and big data computing solutions for design & engineering, today announced that Ansys, the global leader in engineering simulation software, has named PSSC Labs an Ansys Preferred Solution Partner. Through this partnership, PSSC Labs will provide custom configured computing solutions along with best-in-class customer service to Ansys end users.

“As hardware increases in complexity and diversity, it can be difficult for clients to select the most appropriate hardware for their engineering simulation workloads,” said Wim Slagter, director of HPC and cloud alliances at Ansys. “PSSC Labs has addressed this challenge by its ability to build custom solutions for even the most challenging Ansys workloads, each built for reliability, security and performance.”

PSSC Labs is already working with several leading government and commercial organizations to deliver HPC solutions specifically for Ansys applications.

“This partnership validates what we have been doing for many years already, delivering turn-key custom platforms for Ansys workloads,” begins Alex Lesser PSSC Labs Vice President. “PSSC Labs is really unique in our understanding of complex design and engineering workflows.  Rather than just offer a canned server or cluster, we carefully listen to the needs of each individual and work with them to deliver the right solution on-time and on-budget.”

PSSC Labs can pre-install all necessary applications through the Application Integration Service (AIS). This is a big win for PSSC Labs and Ansys clients as they can begin immediately running their workloads and simulations on a validated platform by the manufacturer.

As an Ansys Preferred Solution Partner, PSSC Labs will develop and invest in new technologies that ensure the highest performing computing solutions specifically for complex solvers and other Ansys applications. PSSC Labs’ PowerWulf ZXR1+ HPC clusters and PowerServe Uniti servers are already proven to be compatible with Ansys applications. The goal now is to continue pushing the limits of computational performance while maintaining the lowest total cost of ownership. All PSSC Labs platforms can be customized to meet specific needs, budgets and timelines. PSSC Labs engineers listen carefully to specific needs and can craft highly customized solutions to meet them.

As an Ansys Preferred Solution Partner, PSSC Labs can leverage their success on several projects within the military and government spaces for clients such as the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, NASA, Fortune 500 companies, and small and medium sized businesses. 

About PSSC Labs

For technology powered visionaries with a passion for challenging the status quo, PSSC Labs is the answer for hand-crafted HPC and Big Data computing solutions that deliver relentless performance with the absolute lowest total cost of ownership. We are true innovators offering high performance computing solutions to solve the world’s most demanding problems. For 25+ years, organizations of all sizes and from a variety of sectors rely on PSSC Labs’ computing systems. We are proud to support many departments within the United States government, Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.

All products are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Lake Forest, California.

Space Force Selects PSSC Labs System on the Spot During Pitch Day

By marketing@site-a.com

The U.S. Space Force is ramping up! As part of this massive effort to create a fifth branch of the Department of Defense, Space Force is seeking innovative ideas to solve new problems — enter “Space Force Pitch Days”.  Pitch Days connect those government agencies that need rapidly deployed technologies around Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), High Performance Computing (HPC) and Big Data with companies that are nimble enough to deliver complete solutions on time and on budget.  Government agencies are granted the authority to award on the spot contracts, which significantly reduces the procurement process and expedites the time to delivery.

Earlier this year, PSSC Labs took part in a Pitch Day hosted by the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The company is ideally suited to meet the government’s stated technology goals having delivered nine PowerWulf ZXR1+ HPC Clusters to the 45th Space Wing for Range Safety Analysis.  These systems are used in both classified and unclassified environments at the 45th Space Wing.  “We knew our long and successful history at the 45th would make our Space Force Pitch a strong contender,” begins Alex Lesser, PSSC Labs Vice President. “Over the past decade PSSC Labs has ensured the safety of government and civilians during any missile launch not only at the Eastern Range but across the United States.”

The company is ideally suited to deliver on PSSC Labs HPC and big data platforms for various government agencies and various sectors, from defense to public health. In conjunction with a close IT solutions partner, we worked to anticipate the technology needs of our government and created proposal that focused on a weather data ingestion and display platform that was built on our hardware with SAS software, a business intelligence, statistics, and analytics software stack. Among several hundred submissions, ours was just one in six that would be given the chance to pitch at the U.S. Space Force Pitch Day.

PSSC Labs chose to partner with two other prominent organizations to offer Space Force a solution around Weather Data Ingestion. The stated goal is to deliver a single dashboard to help operators monitor and anticipate launch conditions.  This would be accomplished through the use of a high-performance computing platform, artificial intelligence and graphical tools to simplify interpreting the data.  Space Force awarded the contract to deliver the solution immediately stating that PSSC Labs record of successful deployments to the 45th Space Wing played a big role in the decision.  Mr. Lesser explains the significance of the award, “We recognize that this award is an opportunity to show the newest branch of the DOD that PSSC Labs is a partner they can rely on to solve really complex problems with very, very limited risk.”

The platform is expected to be delivered within the next few weeks depending upon base regulations due to Covid-19 protocols. Once deployed, the 45th Space Wing will better understand and act to benefit the mission and public safety.

About PSSC Labs

For technology powered visionaries with a passion for challenging the status quo, PSSC Labs is the answer for hand-crafted HPC and Big Data computing solutions that deliver relentless performance with the absolute lowest total cost of ownership. We are true innovators offering high performance computing solutions to solve the world’s most demanding problems. For 25+ years, organizations of all sizes and from a variety of sectors rely on PSSC Labs’ computing systems. We are proud to support many departments within the United States government, Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.

All products are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Lake Forest, California.

PSSC Labs Launches Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance

By marketing@site-a.com

DAEDALUS ENTERPRISE SEARCH APPLIANCE
PN: PS-ELAS-CYBRAX-ECE-START

LAKE FOREST, CALIF., FEB 03, 2020 — PSSC Labs, a developer of custom High Performance Computing and Big Data computing solutions, today, announced the launch of its new platform, the Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance. The Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance is a turnkey, high performance computing platform powered by Elastic and certified compatible with Elastic Cloud Enterprise (ECE), which allows users to centrally manage and monitor their Elasticsearch deployments for use cases like search, observability, and security. The system includes all necessary hardware, networking, support, and software for a simple, one-step deployment.

PSSC Labs allows for the ability to upgrade all system components including processor cores, memory, and network backplane. Available storage is built into the Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance. The system is designed to scale and grow along with an organization’s computing needs. Starting at under $200,000 USD, Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance allows companies to start using the powerful search, observability, and security tools built by Elastic without a large capital investment.

“We chose Elasticsearch as the foundation of the platform because it offers the flexibility and simplicity other application packages do not. With Elastic, everything is included in one simple per node price. This means companies can utilize the high-performance Elastic Stack for a variety of workloads including log analysis, cybersecurity, simple distributed storage, geospatial data analysis, and other concepts that are still yet to be discovered,” said Alex Lesser, PSSC Labs Vice President.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with PSSC to build the Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance,” said George Young, Vice President of Public Sector at Elastic. “We understand how essential search is to any organization’s analytics program, and by using Elasticsearch, PSSC Labs is able to provide a tool that meets the needs of government agencies and enterprises alike.”

The PSSC Labs mission is to deliver reliable, high performance, and truly turnkey solutions that enable organizations to perform necessary analytics tasks without giving up control of their data. PSSC Labs believes the Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance is the ideal choice for defense agencies, intelligence agencies, and medium and large enterprises. The fixed cost of the platform and added security and performance guarantee make the Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance a competitive on-premise, hybrid cloud solution.

Elastic Search Appliance

Daedalus Enterprise Search Appliance Tech Specs

  • 3 Director Nodes, 3 Proxy Nodes, 2 Hot Allocator Nodes & 2 Warm Allocator 
  • 20.7 TB Total High Performance Enterprise Flash Storage
    • 3.2 TB High Performance Enterprise NVME Storage on Hot Allocator Notes
    • 17.5 TB High Performance Enterprise Flash Storage on Warm Allocator Nodes 
    • Includes 1 Replica for High Availability of Hot and Warm Storage
  • 80 Total Intel Xeon Scalable CPU Cores
  • 704 GB Total High Performance ECC Registered Memory
  • 6 x Elastic Cloud Enterprise Subscriptions
  • 10 GigE High Performance Network Backplane
  • Management & Monitoring Network Included
  • Rack & power Infrastructure Included
  • Red Hat Linux Operating System 

About PSSC Labs

For technology powered visionaries with a passion for challenging the status quo, PSSC Labs is the answer for hand-crafted HPC and Big Data computing solutions that deliver relentless performance with the absolute lowest total cost of ownership. We are true innovators offering high performance computing solutions to solve the world’s most demanding problems. For 25+ years, organizations of all sizes and from a variety of sectors rely on PSSC Labs’ computing systems. We are proud to support many departments within the United States government, Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.

All products are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Lake Forest, California.

Top Tips to Improving Your System Administration Skills

By marketing@site-a.com

You Envision the Future

LAKE FOREST, CALIF., SEPT 12, 2019 — PSSC Labs, a developer of custom High Performance Computing and Big Data computing solutions today shares their top tips for improving your system administration skills.

At PSSC Labs, our mission is to deliver reliable, high performance turnkey platforms that help organizations like yours perform necessary data tasks without giving up control of your data.  That means keeping your system administration skills up-to-date is more important than ever! Of course, we’re always here to help you should you ever encounter any issues. In fact, you can contact our Support line at any time and we will be happy to assist you. But just to give you a little boost, we’ve outlined the top five support issues that on-premise model users encounter, and what to do if it happens to you.

Machine Not Powering On

PSSC Labs produces turnkey platforms, so they’re ready to be plugged in and get going upon delivery. Should you ever notice that one of your machines isn’t powering on, the first thing you should check is power supply. Verify that the power supply is receiving power from the source by verifying that the power connectors are securly plugged in on both ends.

If this doesn’t work, try a new power port on the PDF and then move on to a new power cable. If your machine still does not power on you can try using a power supply from your spare parts kit (if a spare parts kit was provided with your order) or from another working machine.  Machines with faulty memory can also exhibit this type of behavior, so shuffling or re-seating the memory is also worth trying. 

Machine Has Crashed or Rebooted

On-premise models can crash or reboot for various reasons. They’re often accompanied by BMC System Event Log messages.  Start by checking the output of the command ‘ipmitool sel list’ and check “/var/log/messages” for errors correlating to the date / time of the crash.

Updating your machine’s BIOS to the latest version is recommended as well, as it can fix crashing systems as well as improve the machine’s overall performance.  Verify that the CPUs are not overheating by checking the “sensors” command while the machine is under load.  Faulty memory can also cause crashes, so re-seating or shuffling memory can help to resolve these issues as well.  The causes of system crashes are sometimes hard to pin down, so do not hesitate to contact the PSSC Labs support team for troubleshooting assistance.

Software Support

PSSC Labs solutions often come pre-installed with multiple software applications, ranging from job submission software to parallel computing platforms, from weather modeling to data analysis.

Many of these packages are third party applications and not created by PSSC Labs, so if you ever have an issue with pre-loaded software, it’s recommended to first contact the software developers. If you still need assistance afterwards, contact the PSSC Labs support staff who can promptly assist you further.

Machine is Reporting Hard Drive/RAID Errors

This error is sometimes challenging for even those with years of experience and expert administration skills. Whenever your hard drive fails, your server’s data is at risk.  If you see errors indicating a possible issue with one of your hard drives, a PSSC Labs support technician can assist you with checking the drive’s built in SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data, which will show the drive’s health and indicate whether or not it needs to be replaced.  It’s possible that the drive is healthy and there is another underlying issue which needs to be remedied, so please contact PSSC Labs should you encounter this error.

Machine is Reporting Memory/CPU Errors

PSSC Labs servers come equipped with large amounts of memory and speedy CPUs. When issues occur with these components, users will often see slow / degraded system performance accompanied by MCE (Machine Check Error) messages.  You can contact PSSC Labs and provide these messages to a PSSC Labs support technician who can assist you with determining which memory DIMM or CPU the error is coming from.  Memory can be easily replaced, whereas handling CPUs is an extremely delicate process — one that we recommend avoiding unless absolutely necessary. Often times MCE messages can be resolved by simply reseating or shuffling the memory around.

About PSSC Labs 

For technology powered visionaries with a passion for challenging the status quo, PSSC Labs is the answer for hand-crafted HPC and Big Data computing solutions that deliver relentless performance with the absolute lowest total cost of ownership.  

 We are true innovators offering high performance computing solutions to solve the world’s most demanding problems. For 25+ years, organizations of all sizes and from a variety of sectors rely on PSSC Labs’ computing systems. We are proud to support many departments within the United States government, Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.  

All products are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Lake Forest, California.

Government Agencies Leverage New Technology for Data Flow

By marketing@site-a.com

LAKE FOREST, CALIF., AUGUST 20, 2019 — PSSC Labs, a developer of custom High Performance Computing and Big Data computing solutions today shares how the CyberRax Data Flow Pipleline is helping various DOD organizations achieve their goals.

The Federal Government has spent decades collecting and storing huge data sets, covering everything from census and population records to crime reports and infrastructure data. The analytics retrieved from this data has assisted our government agencies in commissioning greater responsiveness and efficiencies at every level, making it truly invaluable to our society. Federal agencies simply can’t afford to suffer from computational roadblocks. Government servers need to be able to perform streaming analytics while also providing full control over their own data, especially when it comes to governance, security and performance.   

PSSC Labs, in partnership with Cloudera, is deploying the CyberRax Data Flow Pipeline as a truly turnkey system engineered specifically to meet the data transport needs and security requirements of Federal Agencies. The CyberRax Data Flow Pipeline comes complete with all necessary storage, network, operating system and application software including Cloudera Data Flow (CDF). CDF is built on top of Apache Nifi, a powerful and user-friendly data routing application originally developed by the National Security Agency (NSA). With CDF, users have the ability to create simple graphical models that direct data across multiple networks with all necessary data provenance required for the most secure environments.  

A Truly Turn-key Platform 

According to Alex Lesser, PSSC Labs Vice President, the real value of CyberRax Data Flow Pipeline is a production-ready platform out of the box. “What we see happening with the delivery of CyberRax Data Flow Pipeline is a significant reduction in time and cost, allowing federal agencies to see true value much sooner,” says Lesser. With 48 processor cores, 4 GB memory per core, 264TB RAW storage capacity and dual 10GigE network backplane, CyberRax Data Flow Pipeline can fulfill the most demanding environments. Federal agencies can leverage the engineering expertise of PSSC Labs high performance and high reliability platform. That’s why it only makes sense that government agencies including NASA, NIH, DOD and many more have partnered with PSSC Labs in an effort to quickly process, store, analyze and protect their massive amounts of data. 

The U.S. Air Force recently deployed several CyberRax Data Flow Pipelines for both their NIPR and SIPR networks. The goal of these deployments is to collect, transport, and distribute cybersecurity data from every Air Force installation worldwide on both NIPR and SIPR. This solution allows for data to be sent to multiple core locations and fed downstream to multiple cybersecurity tools for analysis. 

American Made

As an American manufacturer, PSSC Labs provides a level of security and trust that other foreign manufacturers simply lack. The CyberRax Data Flow Pipeline can be purchased via several contract vehicles including GSA, CHESS and NETCENTS. PSSC Labs is already working closely with Department of Defense agencies to help them achieve their operational mandate to ingest and direct data from disparate sources all with the required security provisions out of the box. We know that government servers need to be 100% operational at all time, without sacrificing speed, analytics, or security, which is why our team of engineers is available for support for the lifetime of your system.

About PSSC Labs 

For technology powered visionaries with a passion for challenging the status quo, PSSC Labs is the answer for hand-crafted HPC and Big Data computing solutions that deliver relentless performance with the absolute lowest total cost of ownership.  

 We are true innovators offering high performance computing solutions to solve the world’s most demanding problems. For 25+ years, organizations of all sizes and from a variety of sectors rely on PSSC Labs’ computing systems. We are proud to support many departments within the United States government, Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.  

All products are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Lake Forest, California.