Breaking Down the HPC Barriers

In my last post, I discussed some reasons why most enterprise workloads still haven't moved to the cloud. One of those reasons is that mission-critical applications require levels of performance and reliability that earlier-generation clouds simply haven't offered. This has been especially true for high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's wide variety of compute options—combined with our networking innovations, robust security features, and industry partnerships—makes us uniquely suited for these data-intensive workloads. (And our prowess in database for the past four decades doesn’t hurt!)

At Oracle OpenWorld last month, I announced that Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is ready for any and all workloads. Case in point: our news at Supercomputing 2018 this week. We've launched bare metal compute instances that enable organizations to run HPC workloads in the cloud with the same levels of performance that they get on premises. I envision massive server farms, sitting idle, with millions of dollars of unused hardware and gear waiting for the next simulation!

Networking Innovations
These bare metal cloud instances are powered by a new feature called clustered networking, which removes the need for enterprises to run specialized networking equipment on premises for their HPC workloads. Additionally, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is the first and only public bare metal cloud with a high-bandwidth, low-latency RDMA network.

For more information about what we're doing with networking, watch this video with Karan Batta, Senior Principal Product Manager, and Jag Brar, Network Architect:

Robust Security
HPC applications are addressing some of the biggest problems in the world. They help develop new cancer treatments, improve weather prediction, and make cars safer. Being able to run these workloads in the cloud without a performance hit is a major advancement, but it's not enough to clear all cloud migration roadblocks. For the organizations running these workloads, keeping them safe is the top priority. These workloads are as mission critical as it gets, and we take the responsibility to run them effectively in the cloud seriously, as backed by our industry-leading service-level agreements.

Security is also a priority, and is a fully integrated pillar of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Oracle has protected enterprises' mission-critical data for more than 40 years, and that experience drove how we built our cloud. As Larry Ellison, CTO and Executive Chairman, explained at OpenWorld, we can't see customer data and customers can't access our control plane. Plus, we're using the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning to protect against increasingly advanced attackers.

Industry Partnerships
Oracle is able to provide a secure, high-performance cloud, in part, because we collaborate with other innovators and leaders in the market. Our new HPC bare metal instances are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors, with RDMA functionality provided by Mellanox Technologies. We also offer AMD EPYC instances and GPU instances powered by NVIDIA.

No other cloud provider offers this combination of hardware choice, networking prowess, and commitment to security. It's what makes Oracle Cloud Infrastructure the only enterprise-grade cloud—especially for HPC workloads.

Today is the last day you can see on the exhibit floor at SC18 in Dallas. Stop by booth #2806, say hello, and learn more!