Why Demo Systems Reduce HPC Procurement Risk
HPC procurement decisions increasingly involve more than comparing processor specifications, accelerator counts and theoretical performance. The real question is how a proposed architecture will perform with an organization’s actual workloads, software stack, and operating requirements. A well-equipped demo system transforms part of that uncertainty into measurable data.
Organizations can run representative workloads on a variety of architectures before committing capital. Nor-Tech’s HPC demo cluster is designed to provide this type of real-world evaluation, allowing enterprises and labs to test hardware and software combinations and generate performance information before finalizing a configuration. For experienced HPC buyers, pre-purchase testing can provide insight into:
- Application scaling across processors, cores and nodes
- CPU and GPU performance for specific workloads
- Memory capacity and bandwidth requirements
- Storage and interconnect bottlenecks
- Software compatibility and configuration issues
- Performance-per-dollar across competing architectures
The value extends beyond identifying the fastest processor. A benchmark may reveal, for example, that adding compute resources produces diminishing returns because storage I/O or memory bandwidth has become the limiting factor. That insight can shift investment toward the component that will actually improve production performance.
Demo testing also reduces deployment risk. Software dependencies, libraries, drivers, compilers and workload-management tools can be evaluated before the system ships. For many Nor-Tech HPC implementations, customers use Nor-Tech’s demo cluster to benchmark competing processor architectures before Nor-Tech builds and integrates the final turnkey system.
Nor-Tech Executive Vice President Jeff Olson said, “An HPC purchase should be based on more than theoretical performance. A demo gives customers an opportunity to run their own workloads and see how a system will actually perform before they make the investment. It takes a lot of the guesswork—and risk—out of the procurement process.”
For organizations making a significant HPC investment, the objective should be deploying an integrated architecture proven to perform efficiently with the workloads that matter.
Nor-Tech combines demo-system access with extensive HPC engineering and integration expertise, giving organizations an opportunity to validate critical decisions before deployment—and reduce the technical and financial risk associated with getting those decisions wrong.
Nor-Tech has demos available for a wide range of software and applications. To get started or schedule a no-cost, in-depth consultation, call 952-808-1000, email engineering@nor-tech.com or visit https://www.nor-tech.com
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Nor-Tech is on CRN’s list of the top 40 Data Center Infrastructure Providers along with IBM, Oracle, Dell, and Supermicro and is also a member of Hyperion Research’s prestigious HPC Technical Computing Advisory Panel. The company is a complete high performance computer solution provider for two Nobel Physics Award-contending/winning projects. Nor-Tech engineers average 20+ years of experience. This strong industry reputation and deep partner relationships also enable the company to be a leading supplier of cost-effective Lenovo desktops, laptops, tablets and Chromebooks to schools and enterprises. All of Nor-Tech’s high-performance technology is developed by Nor-Tech in Minnesota and supported by Nor-Tech around the world. The company is headquartered in Burnsville, Minn. just outside of Minneapolis. Nor-Tech holds the following contracts: Minnesota State IT, University of Wisconsin System, and NASA SEWP V. To contact Nor-Tech call 952-808-1000 or visit https://www.nor-tech.com