Zenotech is pleased to announce a successful funding bid through Innovate UK for Cloud Burst, a project to leverage the EPIC cloud portal for high performance computing (HPC) for the aerospace and engineering sector. Zenotech is working with Airbus Flight Physics in the UK, Amazon AWS, University of Cambridge and CFMS on Cloud Burst to demonstrate an integrated, commercially deployed solution for a specific aerospace analysis workflow running securely, on-demand in the cloud.
The short-term project comes as a direct response to the Head of Flight Physics in Airbus, Marc Fischer’s vision for the company. Greater use of digital technologies within future aircraft development processes was highlighted in his presentation at DiPart November 2016 (the annual Airbus Flight Physics conference at CFMS in the UK). Airbus recognises that web-based technology and cloud resources are substantial game-changers and there is a need for a step change in exploitation of this type of emerging digital technologies within the aeronautical engineering sector.
Cloud Burst seeks to contribute to meeting the demands of Marc Fischer’s vision, looking to demonstrate a hub for advanced ICT & digital services. Zenotech’s EPIC cloud portal for HPC provides secure access to on-demand cloud resources allowing industrial end users to easily scale their computing power. With consolidated commercial, billing and job management, choosing from a range of suppliers is simplified allowing companies to enjoy the benefits of the price-volatile spot market.
EPIC will help to mitigate issues that the engineering sector faces with HPC around data security, hardware configuration, and software licensing and workflow management. The project seeks to demonstrate new functionality for automatic heterogeneous workflow scheduling, where components have different hardware and software requirements, optimised for price-performance against a dynamic cloud HPC market. There will be a focus on digital innovation in the secure provision of remote engineering HPC systems and the management of dynamic licensing processes.
Principal beneficiaries of the project will be aerospace and engineering original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Airbus as well as their digital supply chain partners. The potential impact includes a new generation of civil aircraft with faster and less expensive engineering processes, quicker design iterations, higher aircraft performance and reduced fuel consumption.
One of Zenotech’s co-directors, David Standingford said:
“We are really excited about the Cloud Burst project and the opportunity to respond directly to stakeholders’ needs around HPC demonstrating the power of our EPIC product. As well as increasing the market for UK-based cloud resource providers directly via our EPIC platform, we seek to support the UK as the hub for aerospace engineering digital services.”
The results of this HPC project will be presented at DiPaRT 2017 in November. Follow Zenotech on Twitter and Linkedin for updates.