NOVEMBER 2018CIOAPPLICATIONSEUROPE.COM 19Making High-Performance Computing Work for Industrye have all seen the stories of companies using High-Performance Computing (HPC) technologies to give them a competitive advantage in the market place. However, just how do these companies accomplish getting to the point where HPC gives them a competitive advantage? The key ingredients to get to that point include (i) making the business case for the time and cost required, (ii) pulling together the people, software, and computing resources needed, and (iii) making the resulting HPC technologies a normal part of your processes. As an academic that creates specific HPC and spends some time working on supporting industry in the effective use of these technologies, I am not qualified to tell companies how to make the business case analysis for using HPC technologies. However, I can indicate that the range and types of companies that are able to make the case is broad as is the role that HPC plays in their business. Nearly everyone has heard of cases how aerospace companies have saved millions of gallons of fuel per year by using super computer simulations to squeeze another percent of performance from aircraft, and how automotive companies rely on crash analysis shave months and millions of dollars off the process of designing safer cars. However, even in those cases, it is less well know how advanced supercomputer based simulations have allowed an aerospace company to introduce new technologies such as active flow control into next generation designs, or how the automotive companies can trust a HPC based, simulation-based design system to design the interior comfort control systems that skip prototype testing go directly to acceptance testing on the first version produced. The use of advanced computing and HPC in the design and manufacture of the full range of consumer products by P&G is also becoming more widely known, as well as the fact that designing a superior baby diaper is not rocket science, the simulations involved are more complex! Companies we have been involved with developing simulation workflows for range from three person start-ups to some of the world's largest companies. In some cases the application of advanced simulation is at the very core of their business. For example, HeartFlow provides an HPC based WcXoinsightsMARK SHEPHARD, DIRECTOR, SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION RESEARCH CENTER, RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
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