Wirth Research is a U.K. engineering firm dedicated to the belief that life can be more enjoyable and more sustainable through its technologies. To that end, the company works to make buildings better places to live, work and shop, and to make vehicles more energy-efficient, all while providing the firm’s clients with compelling return on their investments.
Commercial vehicles that use less gasoline. Buildings that leverage efficient natural ventilation schemes. Grocery store refrigerators that keep the cold air in, rather than spilling it out on the feet of shoppers. These are among the challenges that Wirth Research engineers conquer with computational fluid dynamics and other computer-aided engineering tools — and they are all powered by high performance computing systems.
Today, Wirth Research does all of its computer-driven work in a more sustainable way, thanks to its use of HPC systems that are based in Iceland and powered by that nation’s plentiful supply of renewal energy from hydroelectric and geothermal sources. Those HPC systems are located on a data center campus operated by Verne Global, a company that delivers high-intensity computing solutions that use 100% renewable energy and free air cooling offered by Iceland’s perennially temperate climate.
Wirth Research made the move to Iceland in conjunction with a major upgrade of its HPC systems. When the opportunity arose to replace the company’s aging compute and storage hardware, energy efficiency was a big part of the upgrade considerations. This process led the firm to Dell EMC PowerEdge servers with 2nd-generation AMD EPYC™ processors.
The company’s leaders found that by replacing their existing hardware with new hyper-efficient AMD-processor-based servers, they could greatly reduce the electricity demand of their workflow, and this level of energy savings easily justified the investment in upgraded hardware. And then to build on these gains, they made the decision to deploy their new HPC systems in Iceland, where they could reap the benefits of low-cost green energy.
Verne Global, a Dell Technologies Titanium Partner, operates an industrial-scale data center campus on a former NATO base near the town of Keflavik in southwest Iceland. Fueled by 100% renewable energy sources, this groundbreaking facility powers some of the world’s most innovative and demanding organizations whose competitiveness depends on high performance computing, artificial intelligence and data-driven applications.
The collaboration between Dell Technologies and Verne Global packaged together hardware, co-location, networking and services to deliver a turnkey solution for everything from virtual desktop infrastructure to high performance computing for Wirth Research.
Along the way, Wirth Research has benefited from benchmark testing in the Dell Technologies HPC & AI Innovation Lab. And going forward, Wirth can continue to consult the expertise of both Dell Technologies and Verne Global to engineer and fine-tune its turnkey solution as needs change and technology evolves.
For the full story, see the Wirth Research case study, “Engineering without limits,” and find out more about Verne Global in “Helping Wirth Research deliver innovation at zero carbon cost.” Find out more about sustainable HPC solutions powered by energy from the land of fire and ice at Verne Global.