Connecting business to HPC and cloud resources

17 November 2016

Fortissimo is a collaborative EC-funded project that enables European SMEs to be more competitive globally through the use of simulation services running on a high performance computing (HPC) cloud infrastructure.

 

The project is coordinated by EPCC and involves over 100 partners including manufacturing companies, application developers, domain experts, IT solution providers and HPC cloud service providers from 14 countries. These partners are involved in experiments that aim to solve real business problems driven by end-users by simulating industrial processes using cloud-based HPC.

Fortissimo Marketplace 

Activity within the Fortissimo projects led to the official launch of the Fortissimo Marketplace Ltd in October this year. EPCC led the development of the Marketplace and Prof. Mark Parsons is the CEO of the company. The Marketplace provides small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with cost-effective access to advanced simulation and modelling services operating on a cloud infrastructure of HPC resources together with software applications, expertise, and tools. 

The Marketplace offers a one-stop-shop of resources (software, hardware and support), primarily aimed at manufacturing SMEs but also other businesses that could benefit from cloud-based HPC, allowing them to benefit from advanced simulation and modelling service on an HPC cloud, improving company competitiveness through the use of HPC to deliver new or improved products or services. 

The Marketplace creates value and opportunities for all companies in the value chain, from independent software vendors (ISV) looking for a reliable partner to implement their software-as-a-service strategy, to HPC cloud service providers wishing to provide expertise.

The Marketplace attracts users and members:

  • Users are companies or individuals who will procure services via the Marketplace. 
  • Members are companies that advertise, promote, offer and sell services via the Marketplace. 

In addition to leading the Marketplace, EPCC is also a member. The ambition of the Marketplace is to become the portal of choice for HPC and high performance data analytics expertise and service provision, delivered by Europe’s major HPC technology providers and domain experts.