Acclaimed research institution maximizes productivity by migrating from CentOS to Rocky Linux and embracing CIQ’s software stack for ‘HPC 2.0’ architecture
CIQ, the company building the next generation of software infrastructure for enterprises running data-intensive workloads atop the Rocky Linux enterprise Linux distribution, has published a customer success story that highlights the impact of transforming outdated high-performance computing architectures to ‘HPC 2.0’ software stacks. The University of Montana has transformed a broken, inefficient research cluster to a useful, trustworthy cluster with expert guidance from CIQ.
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“We coined the term ‘HPC 2.0’ to describe the way we are reimagining the foundations of performance-intensive computing, drawing from innovations in both HPC and modern cloud-scale computing,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ. “The University of Montana is a shining example of how HPC 2.0 architecture gives research organizations the secure, reliable, high-performance infrastructure they need to drive innovation. CIQ is pleased to have been entrusted with this critical project, and we hope the results described in the case study will inspire others to undertake the HPC 2.0 transformation journey as well.”
*The University of Montana transforms a broken, inefficient research cluster to a useful, trustworthy cluster with expert guidance from CIQ*
The University of Montana (UM) has a top-tier Carnegie classification of R1 (Very High Research Activity). Unfortunately, UM had an old operating system based on CentOS that had not been maintained. Nodes were constantly failing without anyone knowing, there was no monitoring, nothing was set up correctly, and the 100 users on the cluster began to dwindle due to the poor performance. UM recognized it was time for a centralized, top-of-the-line cluster that the faculty would feel confident in using.
UM entered into a multi-year agreement with CIQ to rebuild its cluster and get it fully functioning. The first year was dedicated to getting the new cluster off the ground and running smoothly. CIQ trained the existing staff to maintain the new system and manage the day-to-day operations and also trained the faculty on how to use the technology. In years two and three, the CIQ Fuzzball product was used to move UM research computing capabilities to the edge.
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Fuzzball is a turnkey, hybrid computing infrastructure stack designed to manage the data and compute lifecycle of performance-intensive workloads. Fuzzball combines the best of cloud, hyperscale and enterprise with that of traditional HPC, resulting in a lower barrier to entry and increased security, supply chain confidence and scale. Today, UM’s new cluster is successfully running, and storage for the 800TB of data is being allocated.
Zach Rossmuller, CIO of UM, said, “Equipping our researchers at the University of Montana with the computing resources they need to do their best work is paramount to furthering our institutional mission. We needed help improving the efficiency of our research cluster so that our researchers had a reliable, secure, high-performance infrastructure they could count on. The CIQ team helped us map out a game plan to make it happen, faster than we’d imagined possible and with a sharp eye on project management. CIQ gave us not only the solutions to problems but also advice and the resources to implement them.”
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