One innovation that is having an enormous impact on the A/E/C industry is the virtual machine. A virtual machine (VM) is essentially a software-based representation of a physical machine, but a VM can run its own operating systems (OS) and applications. Consequently, users can consolidate many small workloads onto fewer, more powerful machines.
That means far greater efficiencies for high-performance computing (HPC). Virtual machines can be used for a variety of HPC applications, including scientific simulations, data analysis, and machine learning (AI). They can also be used to create virtual clusters, which can run large-scale parallel applications like high-end calculations and renderings – and which are integral to A/E/C projects.
A key benefit of virtualization in HPC is the ability to abstract the underlying hardware from the applications running on top of it. This allows for greater flexibility in workload management, as VMs can be easily migrated between physical machines as needed, without requiring changes to the underlying hardware. Additionally, virtualization can provide enhanced security by isolating individual VMs from each other and from the underlying host operating system.
Virtualization can also enable the creation of customized VM images that are tailored specifically to the needs of a particular workload. This can result in better performance and resource utilization, as the VM can be optimized for the specific application or workload it is running.
Cost-savings are significant: Requirements for resource utilization are reduced, for example. Hardware and energy costs are also reduced, thanks to the the consolidation of multiple workloads onto fewer physical machines. Yet the VMs still provide sufficient computing resources to meet the needs of demanding HPC workloads.
Virtualization technology, in short, has revolutionized the way HPC is implemented and managed. We recently published a blog on how virtualization changed the face of the datacenter design world. VMs are having the same impact on systems used by all kinds of companies – at least the ones that are pioneering HPC. As our software and applications continue to advance, VMs will become an increasingly important ingredient in innovation.