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Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in High Performance Computing

Hyperion HPC Survey

Global Study by Hyperion Research Reveals a remarkable rise of sustainability and energy efficiency to the top of priority lists for many HPC datacenter procurement plans, second only to performance, even more imperative than price

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A perfect storm of technology changes, growth in usage from increasing interest in AI, skyrocketing energy costs, and climate concerns are coming together to make the HPC community shift its focus from price/performance to energy efficiency. As the number of AI/ML/HPDA workloads performed on HPC systems increases, the drive to expand computing capabilities comes up against the cost of required energy. A global study conducted in April 2023 by HPC analyst Hyperion Research (sponsored by Dell Technologies, Intel and NVIDIA) determined HPC users’ awareness of and sentiment towards environmental sustainability, including understanding their prioritization of sustainability and energy efficiency in procurement decisions and willingness to direct budget towards related features and initiatives




What motivators drive the shift in priorities?

What motivators drive the shift in priorities?

More than half of respondents were motivated by the idea of wanting to do more with less: Expand computing capabilities with lower power. As the number of AI/ML/HPDA workloads performed on HPC systems continues to increase, the drive to expand computing capabilities comes up against the required energy costs. 33% say they encounter prohibitive energy costs, pointing to a more acute issue

34%


34% say energy costs will impact operations by reducing operational hours.

55%


55% of respondents say that energy costs impact the level of investment available to them for new HPC systems.

60%


60% say energy costs will impact operations by deferring the purchase of new systems.

43%


43% say energy costs will impact operations by limiting the capabilities of current systems.

New metric needed for tracking progress toward sustainability goals

Nearly half (49%) of data centers in this survey say they can currently measure their carbon footprint, energy use or environmental impact. Within the next 18 months, the number of sites implementing smart power management will increase to 40% from 27% using it today.

We asked respondents to help build a metric that encompasses HPC sustainability in all its facets, based on factors that they view to be important. The most selected factors were energy use for the full data center, energy use efficiency ratios, and energy source (renewable energy, oil, gas). The most used metrics for HPC sustainability are energy use efficiency ratios, so adding energy use of the full data center and energy sources to an algorithm suggests a need for a new approach

Factors that should be included in a sustainability metric

How HPC is planning a more sustainable future

How HPC is planning a more sustainable future

60% of respondents say sustainability initiatives will impact their on-premises HPC budgets. Interestingly, half of those respondents said sustainability initiatives will reduce on-premises purchases and the other half indicated that sustainability initiatives will increase them.

Plans to reduce on-premises HPC budgets and save money for sustainability initiatives indicate that HPC sites are either devoting resources to optimization efforts, changing where HPC workloads are run, or purchasing new energy efficient hardware or cooling systems.

Priorities in Sustainability: Now vs. 18 months

All priorities that are implemented today are expected to continue 18 months from now, with smart power management/ telemetry (+13%), renewable energy sourcing (+6%), extending equipment life (+3%), and effective equipment retirement (+3%) gaining popularity amongst priorities.
*Chart notes
- Efficient hardware configuration (Higher performance per watt)
- Optimized workloads (identifying efficient workloads on- premises and in the cloud)
- Smart power management (telemetry)
- Efficient code (e.g., language, compilers, tools, libraries)
- Effective equipment retirement (e.g., take back, recycling, proper disposal)
Next-gen HPC delivers sustainability, efficiency, and lower TCO
Next-gen HPC delivers sustainability, efficiency, and lower TCO
atNorth, in collaboration with Dell Technologies, provides BNP Paribas with a state-of-the-art infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution. The infrastructure, including Dell PowerEdge servers, is hosted in atNorth’s ultra-power-efficient data center facilities in Iceland, powered only with renewable energy that dwarfs the carbon effect of the solution

How Sustainability Impacts Purchasing Decisions

While performance was selected as the most important factor in on-premises procurements, as is typical of most HPC procurements across the HPC market, the second most important factors selected by respondents suggest that environmental sustainability/ energy efficiency are gaining importance in the procurement process.

Procurement Factors

87% of respondents say new equipment procurement will play a role in their sustainability plans, but equipmentprocurement timelines vary across sites. Procuring more sustainable equipment is expected to be a part of regularly scheduled procurement plans for 48% of sites, while 20% of sites will expedite procurement plans and 18% will delay procurement plans for sustainable solutions

Procurement plans

Research Survey Demographics

Hyperion HPC Survey

Representation by Sector

Access the research report and whitepaper from Hyperion, and learn more about Dell HPC Solutions:

Read Whitepaper Download Report Dell HPC Solutions Servers Designed for Efficiency
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