Dell Technologies Inc. is stepping up its high-performance computing game with the launch of new systems and services designed for use cases such as genomics, digital manufacturing and artificial intelligence.

The new systems, announced today, are part of the Dell EMC Ready Solutions family of compute and server hardware that’s customized for specific workloads. With the launch, the company is furthering its goal of democratizing access to HPC, said Thierry Pellegrino, vice president of business strategy at Dell’s server and infrastructure unit.

HPC is a competitive area for legacy vendors such as Dell, thanks to its high margins and its ability to highlight what can be done with new, cuttin- edge hardware.

“We’re committed to advancing and democratizing HPC and AI by making these technologies more accessible to the big thinkers who will shape our future,” Pellegrino said in a statement.

The first of the new systems is the Dell EMC Ready Solution for HPC Genomics, which has been built for companies that need to get genomic analysts systems up and running quickly and for little cost. The system is comprised of “modular building blocks” that include Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, Dell EMC PowerSwitch networking gear and Dell EMC Storage, which can be configured easily to meet various performance requirements. It also comes with customized software for bioinformatics and workload management that helps customers process complex genomic data faster to aid in the development of personalized treatments and to predict disease patterns and outcomes, Dell said.

“You want clinical results back as fast as possible, so physicians can make decisions faster. You don’t want to wait two or three weeks,” said James Lowey, chief information officer at The Translational Genomics Research Institute, an early adopter of the system. “With the Dell EMC Ready Solution for HPC Genomics, results are more clinically relevant, and we can have them back the same day, which is huge for patients and their families.”

Next up is the Dell EMC Ready Solution for Digital Manufacturing, which combines Dell EMC’s servers, storage and networking with HPC middleware with design software from a company called Altair Engineering Inc. This solution is available on-premises or in the cloud, and is delivered as a managed service to help companies reduce HPC complexities, meet their growing compute requirements and run simulations more affordably. The idea is to provide quick and easy access to HPC clusters that can be used to improve and speed up the product design process.

Finally, Dell is introducing new HPC and AI as-a-services efforts that provide customers with access to HPC resources in the cloud at various price and commitment levels. The aim is to give customers an easy way to run data-intensive workloads for AI and high performance data analytics economically, Dell said.

Dell said all three of its new HPC offerings are available globally starting today.

Image: Dell