Startup Black Sky claims it can provide everything needed to simplify system management of high performance computing (HPC) and allow bursting into the cloud easily, meeting time-sensitive demands without incurring vast IT headaches.

Target markets: rendering artists, bioinformatics professionals, and those in a wide range of other HPC verticals.

First, the company set about building a cloud offering that comprised purpose-built high performance computing gear from top to bottom; hyper-efficient servers, 40 gigabit Ethernet, and a robust storage array. The team designed and built their own hardware to support the efficiency, performance, and manageability layers required for HPC users.

Then they addressed the middleware “glue” that makes management seamless, with a custom blend of open source and in-house-developed software.