In High Performance Computing (HPC) elasticity is a game changer. It’s the difference between an engineering team waiting an entire week for simulation results or getting them back before their afternoon coffee break.
Aviato Consulting recently led a digital transformation project for a top engineering simulation firm, moving their most important workloads to Google Cloud. By migrating from aging on premises hardware to a scalable Google Cloud environment, the client eliminated their infrastructure bottlenecks.
We deployed a scalable computing cluster that gives a global engineering firm instant access to over 1,000 CPUs for their heaviest simulation workloads.
Industrial Engineering / Manufacturing
Eliminate on premises infrastructure bottlenecks, fragile license management, and prohibitive queue latencies for Siemens STAR CCM+ and FEA solvers.
Automated Slurm cluster architecture built using the Google Cloud HPC Cluster Toolkit.
Utilising 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids) nodes.
Implementation of Scale to Zero automation.
On demand provisioning eliminated days of waiting for physical hardware availability.
About the Client: With over two decades of engineering experience across multiple industries. They specialize in complex areas like fluid dynamics (CFD), and structural analysis (FEA). Companies around the world rely on their expertise to make sure their most critical design and engineering decisions which are backed by solid data.
The Goal: The client needed a setup where engineers could run massive simulations and complex calculations instantly without worrying about hitting physical server limits or spending time managing a data center.
Our analysis identified three distinct hurdles that were slowing down the operational efficiency:
Existing hardware was operating beyond its intended capacity, leading to “queue gridlock” where critical projects were delayed by days or weeks.
Legacy scheduling methods created significant compliance risks and administrative overhead when attempting to scale or reallocate resources across a global team.
The cost of maintaining aging on site systems, including power, cooling, physical security, and manual maintenance, had become high.
Aviato Consulting chose a strategy rooted in Infrastructure as a Code (IaaC), utilising the Google Cloud HPC Cluster Toolkit.
The “Pay as You Go” Supercomputer: A Google Cloud Success Story
We used Google’s specialized C4 chips and high speed Filestore to get the best possible speed for the lowest price. Unlike traditional setups that lock you into expensive contracts, this Google Cloud model lets the client pay only when they are actually running simulations.
We designed a VPC with private subnets. Engineers access the cluster via Identity Aware Proxy (IAP), providing secure SSH access.
We implemented a centralised license server, allowing nodes to fetch updates and licenses securely without being exposed to the open internet.
The environment was engineered to be compatible with all versions of Siemens STAR CCM+. We implemented an automated image pipeline that allows for “zero touch” auto upgrades of STAR CCM+ versions, ensuring the engineering team always has access to the latest solver optimisations.
To save the client money, we matched every task to the right level of power. Small jobs ran on cheaper settings, while heavy simulations used high performance power, ensuring they never overpaid for Google Cloud space.
The Aviato “Cloud Burst” Framework: Using the Toolkit, we deployed a dedicated Slurm Controller and Login Node that abstracts the cloud’s complexity.
By leveraging specialised infrastructure and Aviato’s automation, we delivered a system that is as powerful as a supercomputer but as flexible as a startup.
Does it get queued?
In a traditional environment, “queuing” means your job sits idle until someone else finishes. In our solution, while a “queue” exists in Slurm, it acts as a trigger rather than a barrier.
Profits & Personnel Shift
Aviato Consulting was the right fit for this transformation due to our unique intersection of cloud expertise and industrial engineering knowledge:
HPC in the cloud is about re architecting for agility. By partnering with Aviato Consulting, you gain:
Aviato Consulting modernized a global engineering firm’s simulation process by moving their heavy workloads from aging, slow on premises servers to an automated Google Cloud environment. By replacing queue gridlock with an elastic system that scales to over 1,000 CPUs instantly, engineers can now run complex fluid dynamics and structural tests on demand rather than waiting days for hardware to become available.
This migration served as a critical capability upgrade, allowing the engineering team to accelerate their R&D cycles without being constrained by fixed compute capacity. Financially, this allowed the client to transition from a rigid CapEx hardware refresh cycle to a flexible OpEx model, significantly reducing idle compute waste while bursting to 1000+ cores only when required. Ultimately, the firm traded hardware headaches for a scalable supercomputer that only costs money when it’s actually working.
Legacy HPC infrastructure shouldn’t be the bottleneck for engineering innovation. If your solver queue times are impacting project delivery, let’s discuss how a tailored Google Cloud architecture can resolve it.
