Using the cloud to make better decisions in shorter timescales to maximise business performance

Making the right decisions at the right time is fundamental in all industrial sectors. Regardless of whether an organisation is a public or private company, and irrespective of the industrial sector in which it operates, there is a clear need to deliver value for money in a cost-effective manner. Simulation modelling is widely used in industry to improve the quality of decision making. Models allow users to ask 'what-ifs' to identify how performance can be maximised. Benefits include greater confidence, cost avoidance and reducing capital and operational expense. However, without the necessary computer resources the timeframes for decision making are elongated. This has the potential to tempt users into taking shortcuts which may result in poor decision making. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this risk; with simulation professionals working from home, access to computing resources is severely limited.

Simulation models are representations of real systems; they include numerous aspects of variability. For example, the time taken to undertake a manual operation or the outcome of an event (e.g. passing or failing a test). A model must therefore be run repeatedly, and conclusions must be drawn from an aggregated set of results based on multiple runs to ensure that are statistically valid. With industrial models taking hours to run, this gives rise to a need for a High-Performance Simulation Architecture (HPSA) where replications are run in parallel to compress timescales. Simulation analysts working from home do not have access to a HPSA - there is a clear need to address this in order to protect the ability for British Industry to make quality decisions in a timely fashion.

This project will create a cloud-based high-performance computing service for simulation professionals. Companies that have already made a significant investment in simulation will be able to continue to realise benefits whilst working remotely. Additionally, companies that already use simulation and want to make quality decisions in compressed timescales could do so without the usual hardware and software upfront costs. Saker is uniquely qualified to create this service having already successfully prototyped a desktop grid equivalent in a cloud. We have the motivation, expertise and know-how to bring this disruptive digital technology to market this year and seek Innovate UK's assistance to do so. Although it is difficult to quantify the scale of the savings that the service will deliver, we estimate that clients will save millions of pounds through better, timely decision making.