CrunchYard High-Performance Computing with SUSE and Microsoft

CrunchYard, a SUSE One Partner, pioneers innovative high-performance computing (HPC) solutions that help academic, scientific, and commercial clients all over the world achieve success. We’ve invited CrunchYard to author a guest article so you can learn more about how CrunchYard is expanding access to scientific computing with SUSE Linux Enterprise and Microsoft Azure. ~ Terry

SUSE GUEST BLOG ARTICLE AUTHORED BY:
Dr. Renier Dreyer, CEO, CrunchYard

Instant, scalable, high-performance computing on Azure – no HPC expertise required

The speed and power of high-performance computing (HPC) offers attractive capabilities to users.  Yet few have access to the computing resources and expertise to design, build, and deploy their own clusters.  With a CrunchYard HPC Cluster, built with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, on Microsoft Azure, anyone can enjoy the benefits of true HPC easily, instantly, and cost effectively.

HPC provides the computational power and speed we need to solve some of our most challenging computational problems, such as deriving valuable insights from vast datasets, testing new engineering designs through simulation, and accurately modeling the world’s weather to improve forecasts and understand climate change.  With HPC, problems that used to take months, can be solved in hours.  And some problems cannot be solved without HPC. 

But access to HPC resources can be challenging.  Many potential users face seemingly insurmountable barriers, such as high capital expense, lack of hardware, supply chain issues, short project timelines, and the complexity of supporting HPC cluster environments.  Lack of HPC access stands in the way of innovation and success. 

At CrunchYard, we are devoted to helping our clients overcome their challenges.  We leverage our HPC expertise and work closely with partners, like SUSE, to pioneer solutions that enable scientists and engineers to simulate anything, to innovate everywhere.  It is this devotion and focus that drives us to help eliminate barriers to HPC resources. 

Our cloud HPC cluster solution deftly knits together the powerful hardware of Microsoft Azure, the adaptable and performant SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system, and a variety of specialised management features and processes with robust automation. The result is an easy, instant, scalable HPC cluster on a pay per use basis. Pay only for what you use, use as much as you need, when you need it. 

With a few selections in your web browser, you can instantly and effortlessly scale to thousands of cores across multiple compute nodes.  With this solution you also leverage the advantages of InfiniBand interconnects, enabling very low latency for interprocess communications and exceptional data throughput.  You also have choice between a standard NFS file system for computation-heavy workloads and, for data intensive workloads, a parallel file system based on Gluster.  Familiar tools, like OpenPBS for resource scheduling and Ganglia for resource monitoring, make it easy to manage your cluster and workloads.  And this is built on SUSE Linux Enterprise, enabling us to offer a performant and supportable HPC cloud solution with robust access to development tools and libraries as well as broad compatibility with community open source and commercial HPC software applications.

CrunchYard is proud to partner with SUSE and Microsoft Azure to offer pioneering HPC solutions that lift barriers to access and empower our clients with the tools they need to simulate anything and innovate everywhere.

You can find more information and access the solution in the Azure Marketplace.
For advanced inquiries or to discuss special needs, you can contact CrunchYard at info@crunchyard.com.

Dr. Renier Dreyer (CEO)
BSc. (Elec) Eng, PhD
Senior Member SAIEE
Chief Executive Officer, CrunchYard

After completing his doctorate in electrical engineering, Renier Dreyer worked as a senior engineer in the aerospace industry, where he first discovered the power and potential of high-performance computing. He realized there were serious barriers to entry for new users, and, as a part time lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, he noticed similar challenges for academic and scientific users. In 2007, he founded CrunchYard with the mission to make HPC capabilities available to everyone. Since then, CrunchYard has built a solid reputation for helping clients all over the world unlock the potential of true, fit-for-purpose HPC, whether on premises or in the cloud.

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