The path to Datwyler IT infrastructure 2.0 for simulations

"Product development without simulation is no longer conceivable for us," says Rudolf Randler, Head of Simulation at Datwyler. Ansys has been a fixture at Datwyler since 2006. The experience gained from countless projects combined with the in-depth knowledge of materials and processes is highly valued by customers. The importance of simulation at Datwyler is also reflected in the growing number of simulation specialists, and the team is becoming increasingly international following strategic acquisitions of companies in the USA and China.

More users and projects, increasingly complex and parallelized calculations of highly non-linear models, shorter time frames - at some point, the existing IT infrastructure for simulation and HPC could no longer keep pace. Effectiveness suffered as a result of the imbalance between the required and available computing power.

In short, the pressure of suffering was immense. A powerful, flexible and future-proof hardware solution was overdue.  

With the new system, all colleagues can work simultaneously. The calculations also run much faster with the same number of cores and are additionally accelerated by parallelization. By adapting the software licenses, the HPC possibilities are fully exploited. The advantages at a glance:

• More independence: The 4 users in Schattdorf compute without bottlenecks on virtual workstations and use HPC. The 5th virtual workstation is used smoothly in China.
• More computing power: The calculations are already much faster with the same number of cores; additional time is gained with parallelization; complex 3D models are calculated in hours instead of days as before.
• More efficiency: Faster project processing and higher project throughput.
• Security and convenience: Regulated backup and update processes, more data security.
• Centralized instead of decentralized: The system in Altdorf will be expanded for use by all users worldwide. This promotes global collaboration and eliminates the need for regional systems.
• Better use of licenses: Software costs are reduced through the use of global licenses, which are used optimally due to the time differences.
• Extended spectrum: The expansion of simulation capacities (LS-Dyna, Fluent, Rocky and Granta) including HPC is guaranteed on the hardware side.

For a global group of companies, a project to reorganize the central computing infrastructure only works across divisions and countries. CADFEM, a long-standing partner of Datwyler in the field of simulation, was also brought on board. The server that is now being replaced, which had proven itself over many years, had already been purchased from CADFEM. CADFEM is also certified by Ansys itself as an Elite Technology Partner (so-called System Integrator) for IT systems for such projects.

After analyzing the requirements, a configuration crystallized. However, the path to its realization and smooth integration into the global IT environment was long and involved detailed planning and many rounds of coordination.

The server system was set up successively: the pre-installation was carried out at and by CADFEM, the installation in the server cabinet and the cabling at and by Datwyler. All those responsible were in Altdorf for the commissioning of the finished system. Test calculations with Ansys were carried out on this day without any complications.