Customer successes accelerate company’s transition into high-performance organisation

Key HPC agreements signed since the start of 2012 include a strategic alliance deal with the University of Liverpool, a contract with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) to deliver and implement state-of-the-art high performance computing (HPC) equipment and provide associated consultancy, support and partnership agreements with Wirth Research and the University of Warwick and a contract to deliver solutions and services to the new HPC Midlands facility.

Bull’s HPC agreement with the University of Liverpool is worth around £800,000. Under the terms of the deal, which incorporates a five year partnership and support agreement, Bull is implementing an integrated 40 Teraflop HPC system for the University, based around its own ‘bullx’ blade hardware and bullx supercomputer software suite.

According to Cliff Addison, Manager, Advanced Research Computing, University of Liverpool, “Bull was attractive to us because it could provide us not only with high-quality HPC solutions but critically also access to extensive expertise and new thinking in HPC; ongoing guidance in implementing and running the solutions and the ability to test out the latest technologies at its industry-leading benchmarking facility. “

MTC has acquired an HPC facility designed to help develop a comprehensive capability in manufacturing simulation. To support this new focus, MTC needed a partner and provider capable of providing direct access to the component (hardware and software) HPC technology and possessing associated skills in deploying and developing it.

Dr Clive Hickman, CEO, MTC, commented on the appointment of Bull: “not only did Bull have the HPC knowledge and expertise we were looking for but they demonstrated attention to detail, quality of solution and flexibility to satisfy our needs at all stages. We look forward to working with Bull and to them delivering a solution that not only meets our needs today but also for the future.”

Under the terms of its long-term contract with Wirth Research, Bull is delivering high-performance computing (HPC) solutions and Panasas ActiveStor™ storage and services. Bull will also provide consultancy, enabling Wirth to optimise its use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) within the Bull HPC environment and streamline the design process. Following the appointment of Bull, Wirth recorded one of its most successful years ever in 2012.

Nick Wirth, founder of Wirth Research, says, “in choosing Bull, we are moving away from the simple procurement of computing equipment, to instead work in partnership with Europe’s leading HPC provider. In so doing, we are focused on supporting what is important to us: success both on and off the race track.”

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a Premier Partnership, Bull and the University of Warwick are collaborating on a non-inclusive basis on a range of HPC research and education initiatives.

According to Andrew Carr, CEO, Bull UK & Ireland, “organisations are increasingly seeing the benefits of HPC in terms of enabling them to innovate and drive time to insight while still reducing cost of ownership. HPC is becoming an increasingly important focus for Bull also. We are already seeing growing traction for our HPC services and we look forward to building on this as we strengthen our status as a high-performance organisation.

In line with this, Bull plans to bring on board the “high-performance management team of the future” through two new employee development programmes. One of these, Pamplona is a bespoke management development programme, which is taking 20 high potential employees or managers in the UK and Ireland through 12 business focused modules, designed to give them the right skills and the right platforms to transform them into tomorrow’s senior managers.