HPC User Site Census: Geophysics Applications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Intersect360 Research surveyed the High Performance Computing (HPC) user community to complete its eleventh Site Census study. The study is a look at their
current computer system installations, storage systems, networks, middleware, and application software supporting these computer installations.

This report provides a detailed examination of geophysics applications named in the Site Census survey. Our goal in this analysis is to provide an overview
of the geophysics applications space, including the breadth of applications and those that are most commonly used.

Our Site Census survey results can be found in many reports, including the following:

  • HPC System Configurations and Technologies
  • HPC System Vendors Installed
  • HPC Storage Configurations and Technologies
  • HPC Storage Vendors Installed
  • HPC Networking Technologies
  • HPC Processing Technologies (Including Accelerators)
  • HPC Operating System Installations
  • HPC Middleware and Tool Installations
  • HPC Application Installations (segmented into application domains):

    • Biosciences
    • Business: Business intelligence, analytics, pattern recognition, ERP, CRM, security, complex event processing, general business
    • Chemistry
    • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
    • Engineering: Structural analysis, electronic design automation (EDA), general engineering
    • Finance and economics
    • Geophysics
    • Physics
    • Scientific research
    • Visualization and image analysis
    • Weather modeling, climate modeling, environment modeling

Energy (primarily oil and gas exploration and production) is a prominent commercial vertical market in the consumption of HPC products and services, by
spending, with approximately two billion dollars in investment in 2019, and with one of the highest vertical market growth rates projected. Despite
this prevalence, geophysics applications represent only 3.7% of the 2,466 application mentions in our most recent survey analysis. This is partly due
to a high proportion of in-house development. Over half (57%) of geophysics application mentions in our Site Census survey were written in-house.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Methodology

Total Responses

Table 1: HPC User Site Census Responses for Application Analysis

HPC APPLICATION USAGE: GEOPHYSICS APPLICATIONS

Figure 1: HPC User Site Census Applications by Domain

Figure 2: Source of Geophysics Applications (Open-Source, In-House, ISV)

Figure 3: Source of Geophysics Applications, Commercial versus Public-Sector

INTERSECT360 RESEARCH ANALYSIS