With a background working in the exciting world of Formula One, Sabe is an expert consulting business focused on thermal and fluid dynamics for high performance engineering.   This case study explains how Sabe worked with  Compete366 to successfully build an Azure high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.


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Business Background

Sabe® Fluid Dynamics offers specialist engineering consultancy services in the fields of thermal and fluid dynamics. Headquartered in Oxfordshire, the team has many years’ experience working on the varied aspects of the development of applications within these fields, covering design, computational simulations, experimental tests, performance analysis and correlation.

For much of the testing and development work that Sabe carries out, there is a requirement for High Performance Computing (HPC) – delivering huge computational power to run simulations, tests and analysis.  However, the demand for this computing power can fluctuate vastly depending on the current projects the team is working on.

Sabe decided that they needed a cloud partner to deliver an on-demand infrastructure, and decided to work with Microsoft Azure.  Initially recommended to talk to 3 Microsoft partners, Sabe chose Compete366 on the basis that they were able to quickly build a good working relationship with one of Compete366’s Azure Experts.

As Gerson Garsed-Brand, MD explains “Even though I come from a highly technical engineering background, the vast range of options provided with a Cloud platform like Azure can be quite overwhelming and we weren’t sure where to start.   We needed some expertise to help us work out which direction to take with our infrastructure setup to avoid making expensive mistakes. From the outset, we were impressed with how highly responsive and knowledgeable the Compete366 team were.”

Sabe needed an infrastructure set-up that would allow them to switch on VERY large servers for a few hours then switch them off when not needed, as the consumption requirements varied a lot from month to month.  It was essential to configure the cloud infrastructure correctly from the outset, as with a consumption-based model, there is an opportunity to make huge cost savings if it is set up correctly, particularly compared to on-premise traditional infrastructure.

The Solution – Azure High Performance Computing Infrastructure

A Compete366 Azure expert worked with Sabe to ensure the MS Azure infrastructure was designed correctly in the first place to meet their requirements for High Performance Computing.  Compete366 has also helped on an ongoing basis with increasing the number of servers, and providing specific support for highly technical queries with Microsoft.

Infrastructure Technical Details

  1. Azure Platform complete IaaS setup with Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Network, Virtual Machine Scale sets, Disks & Storage accounts
  2. Linux-based VMs utilizing Azure High Performance Compute category Virtual Machines
  3. A Single Windows based Azure VM for Graphics Apps utilizing Azure N series VMs
  4. SabeTech Azure Platform hosts a bespoke product for HPC applications
  5. Azure File Shares and Blob Containers used heavily for File Storage and collaboration

Business Drivers

As a consultancy business, Sabe relies heavily on having creative and highly talented individuals working for them.  As Gerson explains “By offering a flexible working approach, we are able to attract the best talent to our business globally.  Our MS cloud infrastructure is an essential toolset that allows us to achieve that.  Our talented team can access our IT systems through our MS Azure Infrastructure as a Service to login and access the systems they need wherever they are.”

There are important financial considerations for this highly resource-hungry consulting business, as  Gerson explains “The High Performance Computing required to run the consulting business would be prohibitively expensive to source, run and maintain in-house.  The MS Azure IaaS offering is so much more cost effective and without it our business simply wouldn’t exist.”

Working with Compete366 to build an Azure High Performance Infrastructure

“The attention that we received from Compete366 was outstanding and the response to all of our queries was always extremely quick.  Their consultants always made the effort to research any queries we had and come back to us with a solution that worked.”

Next Steps

Sabe started out as a 100% consultancy focused business and has grown into a fully-fledged R&D organisation.  The team realised that in creating its own infrastructure and offering – it had produced a commercial technology set focused on fluid dynamics that could be of benefit to other organisations.  The tools that Sabe developed in-house to allow them to manage their HPC infrastructure are perfect for use by other engineering applications and processes that need to use the power of Cloud computing.

This offering from Sabe, named Torpenhow, is an enabling technology which acts as the interface between the user and their own MS Azure subscription for HPC applications.

This gives the customer full control of their Azure subscription and can deliver significantly lower costs compared to those from third-party cloud providers.  The product intends to facilitate the interface between HPC users and their Azure subscription. The customer will retain full control of their subscription, which will mean significantly cheaper HPC and will enable long-term data storage planning through the various options in terms of instances, tiers, redundancy, and costs.

Sabe plans to launch the Torpenhow product to market later in 2021.

If you’d like to find out how our Azure Experts can help you set up your IT infrastructure in the most effective way then do get in touch. We’ll be pleased to help.

 

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“It’s great to work with the Compete366 team, the team members are really knowledgeable, helpful and responsive. No question is too difficult for them. They have really helped us to manage our Azure costs and ensure we have the right environment. When we bring a new customer on-board we can scale up immediately via the Azure portal and quickly make environments available to our customers.”

“We also find that there’s never a heavy sales pitch from them – they are technically focused and recommend what’s right for us.”

Paul Coyne, Rusada

“We had great support from the Compete366 AVD expert, who was really helpful, and guided me through options to tackle issues that arose.”

“The great thing about our AVD set up is that we have a custom set up for each project which Compete366 showed me how to do. And with the scalability and flexibility of AVD – we can meet clients’ expectations and get project users up and running more quickly.”

Amir Dangol, Senior IT Manager, Integrity

“We were immediately impressed with the advice that the Compete366 specialists in Azure Architecture were able to provide. This was all new to us and we really needed some external expertise that we could use to get our questions answered. The beauty of working with Compete366 is that we transferred our Azure consumption to them, and at the same time received all of their advice and guidance free of charge.”

Tim Entwistle, Head of Software Development, Herrco

“Working with Compete366 has been like extending our own team – they are extremely and easy to work with. Right from the outset, it was clear what was on offer – everything was presented to us in a straightforward and uncomplicated way. They also provided just the right level of challenge to our developers and saved us time and money by suggesting better ways to implement our infrastructure.”

Oliver Mackereth, Project Director, Hanse

“Compete366 were able to help us leverage some useful contacts in Microsoft. We really value the expert advice and guidance that they have offered us in setting up a highly scalable infrastructure. We are also setting in place a regular monthly meeting which will allow us to further refine our architecture and ensure we keep on track as our requirements grow and change.”

Matt Brocklehurst, Technical Director - AWOL Adventure

“I have been delighted with the migration, where my team worked very hard, supported by expert advice from Compete366, and achieved everything in the timescale we had set out. Compete 366 made sure that we didn’t make any expensive mistakes, and guided us through the process”

Darrell Cann, Managing Director, APEX
Jon Milward
Director

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