R Systems NA, Inc.
Powering HPC

The high performance computing market is going through a radical transformation. More than ever, enterprises are looking toward HPC solutions to solve their increasingly complex problems. According to Brian Kucic, Co-Founder and Principal of R Systems NA, Inc., “Our clients are looking for creative ways to reduce HPC overhead that includes hosting high-density racks of HPC resources requiring expensive power/cooling infrastructure, maintenance, and technical staff.”

As a cloud-based HPC service provider, R Systems assesses their clients’ workflows to determine which access model and HPC resources best suit their needs. With a variety of service offerings, and the option to locate resources on and off premise, R Systems can build a custom solution for every customer. All clients also have a direct line of contact to the R Systems tech team.

By delivering HPC as a service, R Systems provides maximum computational power, while employing standard-based technologies that have been tested and validated. R Systems provides a competitive advantage thanks to their use of entirely bare-metal, InfiniBand interconnected HPC resources instead of virtualized environments typically offered. They are also partnered with Dell EMC to provide Dell EMC’s HPC Cloud Solution that can deliver a secure private or hybrid cloud environment.

R Systems’ utility model provides a pre-configured environment that enables users to upload custom applications or use pre-installed ISV and open source applications to run jobs. Users access systems via standard protocols such as Secure Shell (SSH) and Virtual Network Computing (VNC). The utility offering is a ‘pay as you use’ model, where usage is compiled every 30 days and invoiced against the clients’ exact usage. R Systems does not round up by the hour, and there are no hidden fees or data transfer charges. Recent benchmarks highlight a marked decrease in overall cost per job when comparing R Systems against competing providers.

We make sure we have the right solution, at the right time, for the right price

Results demonstrate a 20 percent increase in performance at an 80 percent cost savings for a typical CFD model job. Due to its ‘on-demand’ nature, this solution is well suited for bursting or intermittent cluster requirements.

Additionally, R Systems offers a dedicated or exclusive usage model—a purpose built cluster—configured to meet the exact client requirements. The clusters are completely bare-metal, separated entirely from other tenants, and allow full root access on request. During long-term contracts, if newer technology hits the market place, R Systems will help clients with benchmarking the new technology to determine whether or not the ROI can justify the technology refresh. This offering functions as an extension of the clients’ in-house IT team.

Along with white-glove HPC services, the firm also provides consulting services that can solve internal HPC challenges, such as application tuning and workflow optimization. In one case, a client had an internal I/O issue which impacted their performance and caused intermittent downtime. With the assistance of R Systems’ engineers, a solution was promptly identified to stabilize the system and substantially improve performance.

Going forward, R Systems plans to grow their presence both inside and outside the US with Dell EMC. The firm has recently expanded their infrastructure and HPC capacity with the deployment of a data center in Houston, Texas. They are looking forward to increasing the capacity later in Q3 of this year, including implementation of Skylake nodes.