Altair One is the latest example of a CAE organization producing a cloud-based platform that unifies its portfolio and design workflows. This iteration promises an experience that encapsulates high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI) and simulation technologies—along with the vast number of tools offered by the Altair Partner Alliance.
James R. Scapa, founder and chief executive officer of Altair, said, “Altair One provides a modern, single pane of glass approach to leverage HPC and cloud resources for running computational science applications anywhere and everywhere at scale, which is key to optimizing outcomes and achieving faster time-to-value. With the launch of Altair One, we are empowering our customers with all the software and tools to seamlessly manage hybrid on-premises and cloud HPC resources to process workloads in the most cost-efficient and fastest way possible.”
In other words, organizations will be able to migrate workloads between cloud providers and environments on-premises. They can also incorporate new technologies into the workflow without locking themselves into a vendor.
Srikanth (Sam) Mahalingam, chief technology officer of Altair said, “we are planning to add any third-party application that wants to leverage the Altair One platform. It’s offered to ISP partners and they can publish on our platform to access that business model.”
What is Altair One and What Does it Offer?
At first glance, Altair One looks like a run-of-the-mill application marketplace. But it’s much more than that. As soon as you find the application you need, it launches right there in the browser. Users can launch applications on the platform without downloading the software. The data can then be stored, managed, uploaded and accessed using Altair Drive.
Video shows how to share, access, and work on files in Altair one. (Video courtesy of Altair.)
Altair One works on almost anything with an internet connection—from workstations to mobile devices. As soon as users sign in, they can access their documents on Altair Drive through various interfaces. The files can be:
- Visible on their desktop by mapping the drive to Windows Explorer
- Opened on a remote desktop via desktop-as-a-service
- Available directly on the Altair Drive interface
If the user prefers working on their own desktop, they can continue to do so. Altair One can download, install and launch applications on a computer. The files the user works on are saved and update automatically for anyone else accessing them on the Altair Drive. In other words, accessing a file on multiple devices doesn’t risk version control issues.
“Our intent is not to disrupt the workflow. It’s just consuming everything in the browser. The workflow remains the same the only difference is we are automatically managing the data for you, we manage the HPC and we are automatically providing version control,” said Mahalingam.
The Altair One Workflow
Altair One makes the engineering workflow feel smooth because it makes it easy to hop around to the application you need.
For instance, a user on Altair Drive can preview a file, just by clicking on it. You can then move from the preview to a full 3D modeler in seconds. Then, open the file in Inspire and generate an optimized shape. Now open that shape in HyperWorks and validate it. All these movements are done quickly without leaving the browser. As for the work in HyperWorks and Inspire, it’s as fast because all the data is crunched using the cloud and/or local clusters.
Video shows the workflow improvements of working on Altair One. (Video courtesy of Altair.)
“You can use any of our modeling visualization applications through the cloud, through the browser,” said Mahalingam. “You don’t have to install it on your desktop to run all your solver problems on the cloud including the solvers in the partner alliance.”
Custom HPC Options with Altair One
As for setting up the computational resource for Altair One, it’s simple.
Mahalingam explains that once the computational resources are selected, its management is done under the hood. He said, “as more and more jobs are submitted, we automatically increase the cluster. [Users] don’t need to worry about that behind the scenes. They just have to worry if they have enough Altair Units. We provide the infrastructure for them.”
The platform scales its HPC resources, as needed and without the need of buying additional hardware. This is ideal for those with fluctuating workloads. Additionally, Altair One can utilize various cloud clusters such as:
- Amazon AWS
- Google Cloud Platform
- Microsoft Azure
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Nidhi Chappell, general manager of Workload Optimized Compute at Microsoft, said, “Altair is a leader in simulation, HPC solutions and workload management. Altair One is a key differentiator because of its ability to provide seamless access to the cloud and delivers unmatched value for Altair’s customers.”
How to Access Altair One
“Current users can seamlessly use Altair one if they have Altair Units,” said Mahalingam “They can also use units to access hardware infrastructure.”
This subscription-based licensing system enables organizations to only pay for what they use—as opposed to the whole platform. Mahalingam said that the transition is smooth, as your credentials remain the same. You just to move the units from the local license server to the hosted license server.
Altair One includes some exclusive tools that are not offered anywhere else. These might be a good place to start if you are in the mood to use your Altair Units to explore what’s out there. The two new and exclusive applications include:
- Altair DesignAI, which merges the use of simulation-driven design, machine learning and AI to develop accurate designs early in development.
- Altair Material Data Center, which offers a library of simulation-ready materials properties.
To learn how to navigate the Altair One marketplace, watch the video below:
Video shows how to navigate the Altair One Marketplace. (Video courtesy of Altair.)