CADFEM is completely convinced about the benefits of cloud technology for all our engineering services, including training and consulting. However, customers still hesitate to adopt cloud solutions. Why should a simulation engineer use cloud services?
If we look at where things are today, I’d say that more than 95 % of simulation is still being run outside of the cloud. However, customers are rapidly moving to the cloud for several reasons: Firstly, the cloud has enormous scale. Typically, you have a limited number of computer resources on premises. But on the cloud, you get a lot of elasticity on a pay-per-use model. Instead of having a capital expense, there could be an operational expense, and that can provide agility to a business.
Additionally, on the cloud, we are always installing the latest processors, which improve the performance of engineers' simulation jobs. There is also better disaster resilience available on the cloud. We work very closely with Ansys on benchmarking performance for various solvers, so that our customers get the best performance out of the cloud.
Performance is something every simulation engineer wants. However, a typical concern is the safety of the data. Why, especially on your cloud, are the data secure?
Security is the number one priority at AWS. We have over 300 different security-related and compliance-related services. AWS Cloud is designed in a way to maintain security standards at the highest levels for the military, global banks, and other organizations with very high data sensitivity requirements. We comply with over 140 different security standards all around the world, which gives customers confidence in the security of the cloud. We have a special pillar for security in any solution that customers build on the cloud.
Are there big technology hits that will improve things for engineering coming up?
Computation really depends on the processors. We are therefore constantly implementing the latest processors, whether they're from AMD or Intel. Additionally, Amazon creates its own processors. These Graviton processors are a unique innovation and are particularly good from a sustainability perspective because they consume about 60% less energy than traditional processors.
In terms of services, we are building tools that make it easier for customers to deploy high-performance computing workloads on AWS. We now have a new tool called “Research and Engineering Studio”, which can be used to manage a fleet of virtual desktops, allowing engineers to work from a thin client like a laptop from which they can do all pre-processing and post-processing and keep all the data in the cloud.
Of course, you are aware that Ansys Fluent runs perfectly on GPUs. However, the current shortage in availability is a big challenge. How can you help?
Oftentimes, customers would come to us to run their GPU codes because they're not able to find GPUs elsewhere. Thanks to the pay-per-use model customers come and try out the GPU solvers very easily. Users don't have to try to buy expensive GPUs.
