At the beginning of 2016, Amazon Web Services acquired Italian high-performance computing (HPC) software and services company Nice Software for an undisclosed sum.

Now, the team’s EnginFrame software can be run on top of AWS’ version of the Linux operating system, Amazon Linux. 

Fun with clusters

“This product is designed to simplify the process of setting up and running technical and scientific applications that take advantage of the power, scale, and flexibility of the AWS Cloud,” chief evangelist Jeff Barr said in a blog post.

“You can set up a fully functional HPC cluster in less than an hour and then access it through a simple web-based user interface. If you are already familiar with and using EnginFrame, you can keep running it on-premises or make the move to the cloud.”

While it can still be run on-prem, the Barr said that the managed services option on AWS means that “you don’t have to worry about system software upgrades, patches, scaling of processing or storage, or any of the other responsibilities that you’d have if you built and ran your own clusters.” 

Each cluster stands independently in a dedicated AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), with data stored on AWS’ Elastic File System (EFS).

EnginFrame 2017 is charged according to the AWS resources consumed, after a 90-day free trial.