2 page Case Study - Posted 6/23/2009
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Engineering Firm Promotes Management and Analytics with High-Performance Computing
NEWJEC, a leading Japanese engineering firm, needed to respond to a growing demand for analytics capabilities, but it did not want to increase the management burden by adding more computers. So NEWJEC deployed a Windows®-based high-performance computing solution. The company also plans to implement Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager 2007 to meet its analytics and systems management needs.
Business Needs
Engineering leader NEWJEC provides clients in Japan and elsewhere in the world with integrated services that range from preinvestment studies to construction supervision. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company is divided into 10 engineering groups and 36 specialized technical teams, which makes it possible for specialist divisions to have complete control over their own particular fields of activity.
As part of its services, NEWJEC delivers a variety of analytical services to clients. In the past, the company used mainframe computers to conduct its services. However, with the growth in popularity of the personal computer in the 1980s, NEWJEC began to focus on analysis work using the Fortran programming language on early operating systems from Microsoft. The demand for the company’s services continued to expand, and NEWJEC needed to respond to increasingly sophisticated client needs, including seismic analysis and seismic isolation design.
At the same time, the company experienced a rapid influx of desktop computers that were strictly dedicated to computation in each division. Maintaining so many computers eventually created systems management headaches for IT staff members. NEWJEC sought a way to meet its clients’ growing analytical needs while maintaining a more manageable technology infrastructure.
Solution
In April 2006, NEWJEC was introduced to a Windows®-based high-performance computing (HPC) solution. “We immediately realized that this solution could solve many of our technology issues, so we began a more formal evaluation process,” says Yukinori Kuroda, Manager of Information Systems Group for NEWJEC.
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Windows HPC Server 2008 promises to have high performance and a service-oriented, architecture-based scheduler. We are very much looking forward to this product. |
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Yukinori Kuroda
Manager of Information Systems Group, NEWJEC |
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The process went extremely smoothly for the company. NEWJEC originally used Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Professional Edition to develop its internal applications, so IT staff members had no problems transferring those applications from the company’s Windows-based desktop computers to the server computers. NEWJEC also had already implemented the Active Directory® directory service, which meant that moving to the Windows-based high-performance computing solution required no new logon identification management.
As of April 2009, NEWJEC has a 10-node HPC cluster that several of its departments use for projects, such as liquefaction analysis of harbors, rivers, and the seashore and seismic analysis of earthquakes and tsunamis for structural design optimization.
After completing an evaluation of the newest HPC solution from Microsoft—Windows HPC Server 2008—NEWJEC plans to begin upgrading its cluster in May 2009, in part due to the enhanced shared file access and the opportunity to move from sequential to parallel processing. NEWJEC also intends to augment its cluster with additional nodes.
The company’s future plans also include upgrading from Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 to Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to provide integrated management of its HPC environment. “As we increase the quantity of HPC-based computers at NEWJEC, System Center Operations Manager 2007 will become a critical tool for keeping our growing number of managed clusters running smoothly,” says Kuroda.
Benefits
NEWJEC has found that, by using its high-performance computing solution, it is able to enhance its computational and analytics capabilities without taxing its systems managers. The company is especially eager to achieve even greater boosts in performance and manageability once it implements System Center Operations Manager and Windows HPC Server 2008.
Improved Performance
Once it upgrades its HPC environment, NEWJEC anticipates marked increases in performance and functionality. “Windows HPC Server 2008 promises to have high performance and a service-oriented, architecture-based scheduler,” says Kuroda. “We are very much looking forward to this product.”
Integrated System Management
Moving to a more integrated management approach gave NEWJEC better internal control of its IT environment. “Implementing a high-performance computing solution to create and operate an environment in each of our divisions has eased the burden in the field by consolidating the management of computational resources,” says Kuroda. “And now NEWJEC is making a strategic investment in the utilization of Windows HPC Server 2008.”
Minimal Learning Curve
The company appreciates that its initial move to high-performance computing did not require any user or IT staff training. Plus, NEWJEC can deliver targeted HPC implementations to the divisions that need them most. “We were able to easily create an infrastructure that could leverage our HPC solution only for specific users and divisions,” says Kuroda.
