DIU clears path for military access to cloud-based supercomputing

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Rescale’s on-demand high-performance computing is now available across the entire Defense Department.

One significant piece to the mission of the Defense Innovation Unit is to speed the delivery of innovation to operators.

DIU has several tools to do that, including its use of success memos to companies that have gone through a prototype process and proven the usefulness of their technology. Those memos allow other DOD organizations to buy the service.

Now DIU has opened the door for the military to tap into cloud-based high-performance computing by issuing a success memo to Rescale, a provider of HPC-as-a-service.

Rescale went through a multi-year process of prototyping and evaluation to prove that its offering was a secure way to offer on-demand access to high performance computing. The company worked under the DOD High Performance Computing Modernization Program.

“The DIU success memo demonstrates Rescale's industry leading platform for accessing powerful supercomputing clusters through the cloud, and our commitment to serving the needs of DoD through DIU and HPCMP's sponsorship of advanced security authorizations,” Rescale CEO Joris Poort said in a release Thursday.

Rescale’s technology drew the attention of SineWave Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that invested in the company six years ago. Other investors include Microsoft and Nvidia, plus individuals such as Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel.

Public sector has been a target market for the company, which has FedRAMP-authorized offerings.