US Department of Defense Revamps Major Cloud Procurement

High performance computers (HPCs) are recognized globally as fundamental tools for conducting R&D, innovation and advancing the economic competitiveness of nations. More countries than ever are increasing their spending on HPC infrastructure and critical associated areas such as AI, cloud, quantum computing, applications development and optimization, and workforce development and retention. The European Commission (EC), through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU), Digital Europe Programme (DEP), and Horizon 2020/Europe funding programs, fully recognized this criticality for the European Union (EU) to fortify its global HPC leadership position. Further refining and extending its initial long-term mission, the JU has instituted a Four Pillar Strategy focusing on Infrastructure, Technologies, Applications, and Take-Up and Skill Sets, to define an approach to help realize its HPC ambitions. Continued execution of this strategy should well-position the EU to achieve its goals of deploying an integrated world-class supercomputing and data infrastructure.

According to recent study results, a quarter of HPC users (28.2%) either currently employ edge computing or expect to within two years. The top motivators driving edge computing growth include improving real-time data collection and processing, accelerating HPC applications, access to IoT devices for data collection, and a wider range of sensor data. Top deterrents dampening edge computing growth include complex and varied IoT formats, inadequate edge vendor support, lack of in-house expertise for integration, and the cost of integrating into existing infrastructure. This data is from an annual study that is part of the eighth edition of Hyperion Research's HPC end-user-based tracking of the HPC marketplace. It included 181 HPC end-user sites with 3,830 HPC systems.