SC21 Follow-up: Lustre continues to expand its lead in the Top 100 supercomputers

[UliPlechschmidt]

See what’s happening with storage in the Top 100 supercomputers and how it fits perfectly into HPE’s storage strategy as we continue to provide parallel storage for organizations of all sizes and types.

When the November 2021 list of the Top 500 supercomputers was released on the first day of SC21, the whole HPC community focused on the compute system architectures and vendors on the list. No surprise there; that’s what usually happens. But as HPC has gotten a lot more data-intensive in the last years, we thought it would make sense to have a look at what is happening with HPC storage in the world’s top supercomputers.

On the first day of SC21, Hyperion Research shared two very interesting facts about HPC storage in its traditional SC HPC Market Update:

• HPC storage is projected to be the fastest growing category in HPC for the next several years—surpassing HPC servers, HPC middleware, HPC applications, and HPC services.
• For every $1 spent on HPC compute today, about $0.41 is spent on HPC storage. That’s most likely a lot more than you spent on HPC storage just a few years ago.

Storage is no longer is an afterthought. Because the right storage is key for accelerated innovation in the age of insight.

Parallel storage and the Top 100 supercomputers

The community-owned parallel file system Lustre is the dominant file system in the Top 100 and year-over-year has extended its lead compared to the November 2020 list.

We are honored that our Lustre-based storage system for modeling & simulation (mod/sim), artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance data analytics (HPDA)—Cray ClusterStor E1000—won the prestigious HPCwire Editor’s Choice Award for Best HPC Storage Product or Technology.

In the SC21 breakfast briefing, Hyperion Research confirmed HPE as the undisputed #1 HPC compute vendor with 33.4% market share in calendar year 2020. The #2 vendor was mentioned with 20.8% market share and everybody else with single digit market share.

As the #1 HPC compute vendor with the broadest HPC compute portfolio, HPE intends to serve organizations of all sizes and with all business/mission areas around the globe with one-hand-to-shake full infrastructure stack solutions. To achieve this mission, we not only offer Lustre-based parallel storage but also IBM Spectrum Scale-based storage systems—giving customers choice depending on the needs of their mission or business.

Take a quick look at the HPE parallel storage portfolio

Here is an at-a-glance overview for the HPE parallel storage portfolio for mod/sim, AI, and HPDA with the key HPC compute platforms it typically attaches to:

If you’re using HPE servers like HPE Apollo systems for mod/sim, AI, or HPDA workloads today but have non-HPE fast file storage attached to them for historical reasons, know that we can provide you better price/performance with the additional value of having your full stack under support from HPE Pointnext Services. No more vendor finger pointing!  Even better, this statement is independent of what business you are in and what the size of your organization is.

Contact your HPE representative today to learn more. To dig deeper right away:

Download the paper: Spend less on HPC/AI storage and more on CPU/GPU compute

Find more details online: HPC and AI storage

Uli Plechschmidt
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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