Fortissimo Marketplace: open for business
15 January 2019
The Fortissimo 2 project ended on 31 December 2018. Together with its predecessor (the plain old 'Fortissimo project') it has helped over 100 SMEs and mid-caps to run experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of providing HPC services using a business model derived from cloud computing, thereby making it much lower risk for small companies to use HPC.
The initial focus on modelling and simulation was later expanded to include data analytics and produced a diverse range of application. Among the more novel uses of HPC were a system to overcome page curling when digitising printed documents, designing a device for generating artificial ocean reefs by electrolysis of sea water using wave power, and improving industrial plant for generating electricity via biogas from slurry (in this latter case proving that where there is muck there is indeed brass).
The experiments have now finished, but the project lives on through the Fortissimo Marketplace, from which cloud-based HPC services can be accessed by end-users. The Marketplace currently features not only services derived from the experiments, but access to commonly used software (such as OpenFOAM and Tensorflow) combined with HPC resources. We are hoping to add applications from software vendors which, when combined with the HPC resources available from the Fortissimo partners, will provide valuable services.
The Fortissimo marketplace can be found at www.fortissimo-project.eu, together with full details of all the experiments.