HPC continues to be a demonstrated enabler of innovation across a wide range of sectors, can drive significant returns on investments

Did you know that up to 20% of LUMI’s computing resources are available for industry and SMEs? With LUMI’s world-class HPC capabilities and AI platform, companies across Europe will have a great opportunity to develop their R&D activities and boost innovation and competitiveness.

HPC usage also generates revenues, profits and cost-savings for R&D projects, shows a recent study conducted by Hyperion Research Ltd. According to the research, investing in HPC indicates substantial returns on investments for R&D projects. The investigated 763 projects averaged 507 USD (~ 417 €s) in revenue per 1 USD invested in HPC and on average 47 USD (~ 39€s) of profit or cost savings per 1 USD invested in HPC. The results of the research were revealed in a Hewlett Packard Enterprise webinar series on 10 February 2021.

Hyperion Research examined the Return on Investment (ROI) of individual HPC projects and measured the amounts spent on the HPC resources compared with the projects’ financial and innovation returns. In their study they collected data from 763 projects across academic, government and industry sectors. The studied projects were from the following countries/areas: China, France, UK, US, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Japan and EU. The research was funded by the Department of Energy, USA.

The study used a macroeconomic model that depicts the way HPC investments are associated with economic advancements in the form of ROI in revenue, profits (and cost savings) and jobs. The research looks at HPC costs as the input and revenues, profits or cost savings, and job creation as the output.

– The returns have been just tremendous as we are seeing and we are continuing to see a very strong growth in these trends, said Earl J. Joseph, CEO of Hyperion Research Ltd. in the webinar.

HPC for different purposes

The 763 projects could be categorized by the innovation area on what HPC is used for in the project. Creating new approaches and designing better products were the top two areas while other areas being new discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, helping society, supporting research programs and creating cost savings.

Image 1. What HPC was used for in the investigated projects. Image source: HPE webinar / presentation by Earl. C. Joseph / CEO, Hyperion Research Ltd.

The following table shows the return on investment categorized by industry from the studied 763 projects.

Image 2. ROI by indystry. Image source: HPE webinar / presentation by Earl. C. Joseph / CEO, Hyperion Research Ltd.

Joseph concluded his presentation with a slide saying that HPC continues to be a demonstrated enabler of innovation across a wide range of important sectors and it can drive significant returns on investments.

Looking ahead, advances in HPC capabilities that span traditional modeling and simulation workloads as well as new opportunities including AI (e.g., machine and deep learning), and hybrid classical/quantum computing will likely expand the breadth of HPC applicability and its related financial returns.

LUMI will be taken into use later this year: stay tuned for more information how companies can apply to access LUMI!

The research was conducted by Hyperion Research Ltd., 2020. Raw data and reports of the study are available at www.hpcuserforum.com/ROI/ Webinar recording from 10 February 2021.

Author: Anni Jakobsson, Communications Specialist, CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd.