High-Performance Computing (HPC) on Azure provides businesses with the computing power needed to handle a wide variety of demanding workloads, such as simulations, modeling, visualizations, and more.
What Is High-Performance Computing (HPC) on Azure?
High-Performance Computing (HPC) is the practice of combining multiple computing resources (such as processors, memory, and storage) connected via a low latency networking interconnect like InfiniBand to achieve performance levels beyond what a single computer can handle. It allows businesses and researchers to process large amounts of data, run complex simulations, and solve problems that would take too long on a regular computer. Industries like healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and energy rely on HPC for a variety of tasks.
Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services, including computing power, storage, and networking. Azure is the only major cloud vendor offering standard InfiniBand connected HPC instances. Businesses can use Azure to build, deploy, and manage applications without needing their own physical hardware. Azure has many types of billing options, including pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model, meaning companies only pay for the resources they use, making it a flexible and cost-effective solution in certain scenarios.
HPC on Azure combines the power of High-Performance Computing with the flexibility of the cloud. Instead of investing in on-premises supercomputers, businesses can access Azure’s vast computing resources and services on demand, making it an appealing solution for many companies.
Standard Azure HPC Components
The specific components of an HPC deployment on Azure can vary depending on workload needs and budget. However, some standard components are included in most deployments:
- Azure Resource Manager: The deployment and management service for Azure.
- HPC Head Node: A configured system responsible for managing the activities of other nodes in the cluster, such as job scheduling and workload distribution.
- Virtual Network: Allows multiple computing resources and storage solutions to communicate securely within an Azure environment.
- Virtual Machine Scale Sets: Allows you to create and manage a group of compute nodes connected via InfiniBand.
- Storage: Provides persistent and scratch storage for your HPC clusters.
Key Benefits of Microsoft Azure for HPC
Azure provides a powerful and flexible platform for running High-Performance Computing workloads, offering several key benefits.
Scalability
One of the biggest advantages of Azure is its InfiniBand connected instances which offer superior scalability and simpler integration with MPI enabled applications.
Flexible Billing Options
For businesses exploring cost-saving strategies, TotalCAE’s eBook, “TotalCAE Infinite on Azure – A Guide to Digitally Transform Product Innovation with TotalCAE”, provides valuable insights into different cloud purchase options. The eBook helps customers choose the best option for their needs and explains why relying 100% on on-demand pricing is often the most expensive way to run HPC workloads. By understanding these options, businesses can make informed decisions that maximize both performance and cost efficiency.
Global Reach
With data centers spread across numerous regions, Azure ensures that different geographic businesses units can access High-Performance Computing resources from virtually anywhere. This global reach provides reliable performance and reduced latency, regardless of a company’s location.
Security
Security is a top priority for Azure, offering built-in host level encryption, threat detection, identity management, and compliance with industry regulations. These robust security measures help businesses safeguard their data and applications while ensuring compliance with international standards, making Azure a trusted platform for sensitive and mission-critical workloads. See https://www.totalcae.com/resources/intro-to-azure-encryption-at-host-performance/ for examples of Azure encryption features that does not sacrifice performance.
HPC Storage Options
Azure’s has a variety of storage options for HPC to meet end user requirements. TotalCAE’s eBook goes through these storage options that TotalCAE uses to meet customer needs.
Integration With AI Services
Azure makes it easy to integrate industry-leading AI capabilities into HPC workloads, enhancing analytics and accelerating decision-making.
Types of Workloads Azure Can Handle
Azure provides the computing power needed to handle a wide range of workloads that require large amounts of processing power. These include:
Simulation and Modeling – By leveraging Azure’s capabilities and scalability, businesses can run simulations faster and more efficiently, helping to accelerate research and development across industries. HPC on Azure is widely used for simulations in fields such as molecular dynamics, computational fluid dynamics, electromagnetic analysis, and astrophysics.
AI Infrastructure – Artificial intelligence (AI) requires specialized computing infrastructure to handle large-scale, compute-intensive workloads. Azure provides the High-Performance Computing resources needed to accelerate AI innovation, simplify operations, and improve performance.
Visualization – HPC supports graphic-intensive applications and enables researchers, engineers, and creative professionals to visualize complex data at interactive speeds.
Rendering – Rendering requires substantial computing power, especially in the entertainment industry where high-quality visuals are essential. Azure’s capabilities help studios and creative professionals render graphics efficiently, reducing production timelines while maintaining high visual quality.
Common Use Cases
Some of the most common use cases for Azure High-Performance Computing include:
- Manufacturing: Enables advanced simulations, design optimization, and big data analytics to improve product development and efficiency.
- Automotive: Supports design and testing, crash safety, and more.
- Healthcare: Powers computational chemistry, structure-based drug design, and genomics research, advancing medical discoveries and treatments.
- Urban Planning: Assists in smog-level predictions and construction optimization to build more cost-effective and eco-friendly construction projects.
- Oil & Gas: Facilitates seismic data processing, reservoir simulation, and predictive maintenance, increasing efficiency and reducing downtime.
- Aerospace: Supports aerodynamic optimization, structural analysis, and space exploration and research for next-generation aerospace engineering.
- Meteorology: Improves weather forecasting with WRF, air quality modeling, and hydrological modeling to better predict and prepare for environmental changes.
To learn more, you can read our case study where TotalCAE helped Divergent achieve faster simulation times and improved CAE management by providing a fully managed hybrid HPC solution (with Azure).
You can also visit our article on High-Performance Computing Examples & Applications.
Best Practices for Azure HPC Deployments
Before implementing HPC on Azure, make sure to review the following topics:
- Choose the appropriate AMD or Intel HPC instance type for your application.
- Identify the right storage solution based on your application workload.
- Utilize scalesets for HPC InfiniBand deployments.
Secure your infrastructure using Host Level Encryption
- Consider managed HPC solutions
In our eBook, we offer a complete description of an HPC cluster architecture and the basic building blocks used in TotalCAE’s solution.
Harness the Power of HPC on Azure With TotalCAE
Transitioning from an on-premises HPC solution to a cloud-based environment in Azure can be a complex and overwhelming process. Businesses often face challenges related to infrastructure setup, cost optimization, application integration, and performance tuning, making it difficult to fully leverage the benefits of cloud computing.
TotalCAE simplifies this transition by offering fully managed HPC solutions in your Azure account, allowing organizations to focus on their core tasks instead of dealing with the complexities of cloud infrastructure. With TotalCAE’s expertise, businesses can seamlessly run high-performance workloads on Azure without worrying about configuration, security, or maintenance.
For a deeper understanding of cloud adoption and optimization, our eBook, “TotalCAE Infinite on Azure – A Guide to Digitally Transform Product Innovation with TotalCAE”, provides valuable insights into overcoming common cloud adoption barriers, cloud purchase options, performance tuning, and how TotalCAE’s solutions work.
You can also contact us to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn more about Microsoft Azure and HPC.
What Are The Alternatives To Azure?
While Azure is a leading cloud provider, alternatives include Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Another alternative, is to use an HPC cluster on-prem. Each provider offers different features, pricing models, and capabilities, so businesses should carefully evaluate their needs before making a decision.
At TotalCAE, we can help you choose the best cloud provider for your HPC workloads if your IT does not have a corporate standard. Contact us today to find the right solution for your business.
What Is Azure Best For?
Azure offers hundreds of VM types and services including HPC specific instance types, InfiniBand networking, and HPC storage options, making it a versatile choice for businesses of all sizes.