Many of the most significant challenges today in diverse fields such as weather modeling, the federal government, financial services, higher education, life sciences, healthcare, manufacturing, and more are using the power of High Performance Computing (HPC) to create more optimized products and to understand the physical world around us.

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What is the Scope of HPC

HPC has become interwoven into many organizations’ workflows and is only expected to grow over time. With such a wide range of industries using HPC today, designing and implementing an efficient infrastructure requires knowledge of the applications that will be used as well as planning for future growth as well as finding partners that can work with you to determine the ideal solution for your organization. Many organizations may be using HPC in more than one application, which requires the HPC solution to be flexible for different computing, storage, and networking requirements. According to the industry experts at MarketWatch and other sources, the market for HPC servers, storage, middleware, applications, and service is only expected to grow exponentially year over year.

HPC System Components

HPC systems infrastructures contain several subsystems that all must work together efficiently and scale together. The main subsystems of an HPC system are:

• Compute – This part runs the application, takes the data passed to it, and outputs an answer. Over the past two decades, most algorithms have been parallelized, where parts of a problem are run on separate computers or multiple cores. Each time the results are generated or partial results are generated, they need to be communicated with the other calculations or stored on a storage device. Modern servers contain two to four sockets (chips), each with up to 64 cores. Since each of these cores may need to store recently computed information, the demands on the storage device may increase as core counts increase. Many modern applications now take advantage of accelerators that are tightly connected with the main CPU that can accelerate certain portions of the application. Usually referred to as GPGPUs, these accelerators can speed up specific applications and can place their demands on the storage or networking infrastructure.
• Storage – During or at the beginning of a long-running simulation, a great deal of data is required to get the simulation going. As the application runs, more data may also be required based on the algorithm. The complexity of storage solutions can quickly grow with the complexity of your application so the PSSC Labs team works with you to make sure the storage is customized to meet your unique needs. The key point is that HPC storage is a key component for the smooth and efficient running of any HPC cluster.
• Networking – The communication between servers and storage devices should not slow down the performance of the entire system. Each core that is performing the computations may need to communicate with numerous other cores, and request information from other nodes in the process. The network needs to be designed to handle server-to-server communication as well as multiple servers concurrently communicating to the storage system.
• Application Software – Typically, sophisticated software simulates physical processes and runs across many cores. HPC application simulators are not just complex because of the mathematics behind them, but also because highly tuned libraries are used to manage networking, work distribution, and storage processes. The HPC application software needs to be architected to keep the overall system busy to maximize the investment for an HPC infrastructure.  To learn more about HPC application software click here.
• Orchestration – Organizing a large cluster can be challenging for network administrators.  Rarely will the entire system of a large supercomputer be dedicated to a single application. Therefore, application software is needed to allow a network engineer to allocate a certain number of servers, GPUs, network bandwidth, and storage capacities. All of these sub-systems, as well as the installation of an Operating System and the associated software on the allocated system need to be handled seamlessly and effortlessly. For applications that require rapid access to data, it is absolutely crucial to correctly set up the software for HPC storage.

What is HPC Cluster Management?

HPC Clusters are composed of components that enable applications to be executed. Therefore, the HPC cluster software will typically run across many nodes and access storage both for reading and writing data. All of this, including the communication between nodes and the storage system, needs seamless communication. According to the European Grid Infrastructure, “High Performance Computing” (HPC) requires distributed computing between many nodes to deliver efficient computational performance, which is typically described as HPC Clusters. Typically, several different types of nodes comprise an HPC Cluster. HPC cluster components will include:

• Head Node (i.e. the login node) – Often, a head node is nothing more than a simple setup designed to act as a bridge between the cluster and an external network.
• Compute Nodes – These nodes perform the numerical computations and will probably contain the highest clock rates available with the maximum number of cores at the given clock rate. According to Alex Lesser, a VP at PSSC Labs, “the persistent storage on these nodes may be minimal, while the DRAM memory will be high.”
• Accelerator Nodes – Some nodes may include one or more accelerators since not all applications can take advantage of these accelerators. In addition, smaller HPC clusters, designed for a specific application may be set up where all the nodes contain an accelerator
• Storage Nodes (i.e. storage system) – An efficient HPC cluster will need to contain a high performance, parallel file system or PFS. Parallel file systems allow all nodes to communicate with storage drives in parallel. HPC storage enables the compute nodes to operate with minimal wait times.
• Network Fabric – In HPC clusters, typically, an Infiniband or another high performing Ethernet network switch will be used, due to the requirement of low latency and high bandwidth features.
• Software – Cluster management software is required to control the underlying infrastructure, as well as the applications to run on the cluster. Managing the multiple I/O streams that are inherent to HPC applications requires the appropriate cluster management software for an optimal HPC cluster.  Parallel transfer of data from the large number of CPUs to the storage system (on the HPC servers or externally) is critical and must not be overlooked.

To learn more about HPC cluster management and HPC servers built for the highest possible performance and reliability including support for Intel Xeon, AMD Epyc, NVIDIA GPU, and Mellanox Infiniband click here https://pssclabs.losangeles.dev.buckupstudio.com/products/ai-hpc-servers/

In order to achieve maximum performance at the lowest possible investment, the PSSC Labs team has been working with federal government agencies to develop a deeper understanding of what is important as well as their technical specifications.  This consultative approach is the key to exceeding the needs of the federal government.

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“Over our 20+ years working with federal agencies, we understand that a one-size-fits-all approach simply does not work. Each organization and group has a specific mission requiring specific computing and storage needs.  We work closely with the end users to ensure they receive the right platform,” said Alex Lesser, VP for PSSC Labs.

PSSC Labs is trusted as a proven HPC and AI/DL technology partner – with the Department of Defense, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PSSC Labs is uniquely qualified to help federal agencies embrace HPC / AI technologies. We have deep expertise with federal agencies in these HPC and AI systems, which are rapidly becoming the solutions for agency computing needs.

PSSC Labs HPC / AI solutions are TAA compliant and innovative, while being cost-effective and delivered on time.

Contract Vehicles

PSSC Labs offers HPC and AI products through a variety of government contract vehicles. These widely accepted contracting vehicles expedite the purchasing process while satisfying government purchasing regulations. In addition, PSSC Labs is classified as a small, woman-owned business.

Federal Government Contract Vehicles

GSA Schedule # GS-35F-0598R
US Army Chess
CMAS (California Multiple Award Schedule)
NASA SEWP
NIH NITAAC

It is difficult to pinpoint an exact definition of object storage since the concept has different meanings within different organizations. In its most basic explanation, object storage is a system that places your stored data on a flat plane called a “storage pool.” Unlike other storage systems, objects are not kept in a hierarchy and cannot be put inside one another. This is beneficial for a number of reasons. Connect With Us “Object storage offers a simple way to access files any time, anywhere from any device. In today’s world of remote work, object storage can be the key to increasing productivity for organizations of all sizes. In addition, object storage can significantly reduce the overall cost of storage by allowing organizations to break free from proprietary and expensive tier 1 storage platforms,” says Alex Lesser, VP of PSSC Labs. Object storage offers a simple way to access files any time, anywhere from any device. In today’s world of remote work, object storage can be the key to increasing productivity for organizations of all sizes. In addition, object storage can significantly reduce the overall cost of storage by allowing organizations to break free from proprietary and expensive tier 1 storage platforms.

4 Benefits of Object Storage

1. Scalability Object storage is known for its compatibility with cloud computing, and that’s because of its unlimited scalability. Thanks to its flat structure, object storage doesn’t have the same limitations as file or block storage. Hierarchical systems often experience complications when it comes to scaling out. Those difficulties are avoided in an object storage environment because the system scales out by adding nodes. Object storage can easily scale data to petabytes without restrictions. Though it has these advantages in scalability, it doesn’t mean object storage systems can’t also benefit static data. In fact, object-based storage is optimal for static data. For this reason, object storage has a sort of niche applications in the market, best serving static yet scalable archival storage, according to ComputerWeekly. For example, object storage could be ideal for digital archives. 2. Faster Data Retrieval and Better Recovery Each object in the storage environment has its own identifying details, comprised of metadata and ID number, which the OS reads to retrieve data. Without the need to sift through file structures, retrieval is much faster. Thanks to the metadata and ID numbers, users don’t need to know an object’s exact location to retrieve it. TechTarget compares object storage to valet parking: you don’t know where your car is parked, or if and how many times it moves throughout the evening, but by having a receipt, you’ll be able to retrieve your car at the end of the night. Additionally, having unrestricted metadata allows storage administrators to implement their own policies for data preservation, retention, and deletion. This, along with the way storage nodes are distributed across the structure, makes it easier to reinforce data and create better disaster recovery strategies. 3. Fewer Limitations Compared to the traditional file or block-based systems, object storage is far less limited because it’s not organized in a hierarchy. Object storage provides the kind of access that other storage systems can’t allow. TechTarget also points out that the metadata in file systems is limited to file attributes, whereas, in object storage, it can be customized by any number of data attributes. It’s only possible to achieve that in file systems through a separate application. In addition to these advantages, as well as its unrestricted scalability, this all contributes to a limitless storage system that files or blocks can’t provide. 4. Cost-effectiveness For organizations that need to store large amounts of data, an object-based system could be the most cost-effective. Because it scales out much easier than other storage environments, it’s less costly to store all your data. Plus, if users have a private cloud space, costs can be even lower. When compared to other systems that are considered inexpensive for these volumes of data, it’s a much more durable alternative. Learn More To learn more about object storage and implications for your organization contact us at 4sales@site-a.com or 949-380-7288.  For over 25 years PSSC Labs has been providing custom, on-premise high performance computing (HPC) systems designed to meet our clients’ unique enterprise computing challenges.  So whether you need help with an HPC AI or Deep Learning solution or other Big Data application, PSSC Labs is here for you and your organization.

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