Actually, cloud computing is not new for CAE industry, especially for CFD users. 15 or 20 years ago, when you accessed supercomputers in the computing centre from home or office through dial-up modems (do you know what it is?), or ISDN if you are lucky, you were already using “cloud computing”. Now this cloud computing is so popular that every computing event must have a dedicated session for it. If you are not sure, check the coming Supercomputing Carnival 2011 (SC2011) in Seattle in this November or the more geeky one: HPC 2011 in Boston in last April.

Fluent announced the Remote Simulation Facility (RSF) in 2002. This probably is the first commercial CFD cloud computing offer. They upgraded the cluster several times later. The response is, based on community feedback,  very good. This e-business model combining software and computing resources is very attractive for small consulting firms, and moderate users. The $3-$20 (depending on the volume of commitment) per CPU hour is quite reasonable, although not so cheap.

It seems ANSYS is quietly retiring … Read the rest “CAE in the Cloud, Is It Just Hot Air?”

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So, it’s time to talk about CFD  in 2014.

Of course, I don’t want to pretend to be an industrial analyst for CFD. I’m not rubbing the crystal ball. Instead, I’m ranting from the perspective of end users, because I think I am part of them.

Branding, not just technology

Technology is abused nowadays.

If you ever watched a shopping channel (maybe just accidentally in a hotel), you may notice “technology” is one of the hot words in the show.  Maybe just for a mop, or an egg mixer, the presenter is always intoxicated by the “technology”  the product has. The “technology” talked may be just small tricks or common-sense.

If you think CFD software industry is an exception, you are probably wrong.

The technology behind  CFD  is not evolved as fast as CFD software releases. But most CFD software vendors need to push incremental update regularly so that the customer can keep spending. 

One … Read the rest “CFD in 2014”

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