Azure High Performance Computing (HPC) Blog

6 MIN READ

Microsoft Azure’s First Azure HPC + AI Day

Microsoft

Feb 23, 2022

Our first Azure HPC + AI Day is sure to be a hit, with sessions led by Microsoft experts, customers, and partners. Tune in on February 24^th for a look into our greatest hits of 2021, strategy sessions with new product announcements, a customer panel, and dive into exciting topics like cloud vs. on-prem considerations and how to become an HPC partner.

On February 25^th, get more technical with us with an architectural overview, and multiple hands-on lab sessions where you can stand up an environment and run a solution with the help of experts, for free. Ansys will also be with us to talk about the journey to the cloud and provide a demo. Don’t forget to dive into our exciting games to get your very own Azure HPC + AI Day swag. We can’t wait to see you there!

All our live sessions on day 1 can also be viewed through our LinkedIn Event.

Day 1

Azure HPC + AI Keynote

Thursday, February 24 | 9:00am PST

Nidhi Chappel, Microsoft; Prith Banerjee, Chief Technology Officer, Ansys, Inc.; Nelson De Jesus, SVP and CIO, CIBC CapMkts Technology; Alan Payne, Chief Technology Officer, Sensyne Health

The Azure platform enables a new era of innovative applications and services with a purpose-built infrastructure and optimized applications for your HPC + AI workloads. Whether you need to scale to 80K+ cores for your MPI-based workloads, or you are looking for AI supercomputing capabilities, Azure can support your needs with all of the versatility of the cloud.

In this session we will speak to the strategy of the Azure HPC + AI platform, discuss how the cloud is reshaping HPC + AI capabilities, and hear about how the cloud is enabling our partners and customers to solve some of the world’s most complex problems.

AI Infra Platform Strategy

Thursday, February 24 | 10:00am PST

Sherry Wang, Sr. Program Manager, Azure HPC and AI; Vijay Kanchanahalli, Principal Program Manager, Azure HPC and AIThe HPC and AI/ML VM SKU product team is responsible for VM SKUs optimized to run the workloads. In this session we’d like to cover the roadmap for GPU SKUs. In our session we will specifically cover the following topics:

Overview of GPU SKU roadmap
Announce public preview of upcoming GPU SKUs
Benefits to the customer and partners

Azure HPC + AI Software Strategy

Thursday, February 24 | 10:30am PST

Rob Futrick, PM Lead, Azure HPC Software

Software and tooling are at the heart of a differentiated HPC AI experience. Come hear the latest about our software platform, Azure Batch and CycleCloud, what we’re building for our customers, why we’re building it, and where the platform is headed in the future.

Cloud vs. on-prem considerations

Thursday, February 24 | 10:45am PST

Tim Carroll, Climate Portfolio Lead, Microsoft

The question of whether to run HPC workloads in an on-premises data center or in commercial cloud is high dependent on two things: the particulars of the workflow and the perspective of the person asking the question. Join a spirited discussion on the factors that actually drive the on-prem vs cloud discussion.

How to Onboard as an HPC Partner

Thursday, February 24 | 11:30am PST

Gauhar Junnarkar, Senior Program Manager, Azure HPC and AI

Our partners form a key channel in Azure HPC, and we have a well-organized program to making these partners successful on our platform. As joint revenue from partnership increases, we seek to engage with our partners further and we’d love to learn more about partner preferences and asks from Azure HPC.

In this session we’d like to illuminate the process for onboarding to Azure HPC. In our session we will specifically cover the following topics:

A “Hands free” approach for onboarding on Azure HPC
Benefits to the partner
Meet customers and drive revenue

Customer Panel

Thursday, February 24 | 12:00am PST

Andrew Jones, Future Capabilities for HPC & AI, Microsoft

Join us for a special session as moderator Andrew Jones chats with 5 customers to talk about their experiences on the cloud. Panelists will answer a broad range of questions around how they are using the cloud to solve today’s most complex and relevant problems, and their plans for the future.

Make sure to come with questions because they are ready to answer!

Day 2

HPC Operations – Azure, the best place to run HPC in the cloud

Thursday, February 25 | 9:00am PST

Michael Requa, Principal Program Manager, Azure HPC and AI

HPC operations rely on Compute, Networking and Storage which have a number of critical configurations meet the demands of the workload. Overlay the demands of a modern digital operation – security, cost management, identity, serviceability – and the operation of the environment can become rather complex. In this session we'll discuss the world-class HPC infrastructure available in Azure and how to effectively operate and manage it.

IT Operator Hands-on Lab based on AZ-HOP

Thursday, February 25 | 10:00am PST

Xavier Pillons, Principal Program Manager, Azure HPC + AI

Join us for a walkthrough in creating a High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster on Azure. Guided by experts, you'll get the chance to understand and build from scratch an end-to-end HPC cluster in Azure with autoscaling compute nodes, a web portal, a lustre file system and remote visualization nodes. Check out this blog for more information on the environment we’ll be using in the session.

Journey from on prem to the cloud: Story by Ansys

Thursday, February 25 | 10:00am PST

Andy Byers, Strategic Partnership Director, Ansys

Ansys develops computer-aided engineering software that enables its customers to virtually prototype and optimize their products before they ever build them in the real world. This software scales very well across many compute cores, making it very well suited to take advantage of the compute power in the cloud. Ansys will review the path to the cloud that they took along with a tour of their cloud platform, called Ansys Cloud, which is hosted on Azure. Then Ansys will conduct a live demo of Ansys Cloud and answer questions. Finally, a free trial for Ansys Cloud will be offered to those interested.

Engineer Hands-on Lab using AZ-HOP

Thursday, February 25 | 12:15am PST

Davide Vanzo, Program Manager, Microsoft Azure

Join us to use a High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster on Azure. Guided by experts, you’ll get the chance in this hands-on lab to run a typical HPC workload and visualize the end results. Check out this blog for more information on the environment we’ll be using in the session.

Customer Panel

Join us on February 24 at 12:00 PM PT to hear directly from our customers about their experiences. Available on both platforms, be ready to hear about their experiences working in the cloud, the incredible projects they’ve been working on, and what the future holds. Don’t forget to ask questions.

Try out the Azure HPC + AI platform

We’ll have two hands on labs guided by Microsoft experts and completely free. In the IT operator hands on lab, you'll get the chance to understand and build from scratch an end-to-end HPC cluster in Azure with autoscaling compute nodes, a web portal, a lustre file system and remote visualization nodes. Later in the day in the Engineering hands on lab, you’ll then get the opportunity to run a typical HPC workload and visualize the end results.