HPC Users Willing to Pay 10-15% Premium for Faster, Higher Performance Processors and Larger, Faster Memory

The European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) recently announced the selection of six sites to host what could be the first major round of EU government-sponsored quantum computer (QC) procurements. The new QC systems will be integrated into leading EU-based HPC sites including the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre in Czechia, the Barcelona Supercomputer Center in Spain, and Cineca in Italy, as well as key HPC sites in France, Germany, and Poland. The QC systems will be networked to support EU-wide access by academic, commercial and government research facilities. Half of the 2023 €100 million procurement budget will come from the EU and the remainder from the 17 countries participating in the EuroHPC JU. The QC hardware and software for this effort will draw exclusively on EU technology developed under EU-funded quantum initiatives, related national programs, and private investments.

Two weeks ago, the US Department of Defense officially canceled its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud solicitation and contract, ending a long period of uncertainty and controversy. Originally, the contract, which designated $10 billion to support cloud computing capabilities for a variety of workloads and departments across the DoD, had been awarded to a single vendor, Microsoft Azure, in 2019. However, after appeals from other vendors, the process was reevaluated. Ultimately Microsoft was awarded the contract a second time. After nearly two years into the JEDI solicitation and award process, the DoD stated that their needs had evolved, and the original contract no longer aligned with the requirements of the department. A new solicitation was issued, the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract, which indicated a plan to use multiple vendors to fulfill the needs of the contract. Currently, the DoD is seeking proposals from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services but will likely evaluate other qualified U.S. based CSPs.