Amber Hickman |
One of the key elements to any partnership is growth. Ansys and Microsoft have been partners for over six years and in that time, both organisations have developed new solutions, embraced new innovations and discovered new strategies for the future.
“The first product we built on Microsoft Azure, Ansys Cloud Direct, taught us a lot about how to offer cloud for simulations to our joint customers, including what does and doesn’t work,” says Andy Byers, director of strategic partnerships at Ansys.
The collaboration between Ansys and Microsoft has since expanded to include other key technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence and machine learning. For example, AnsysGPT, which was released in April 2024, was developed using ChatGPT technology on the Azure OpenAI Service.
“Given Microsoft’s broad market coverage, brand name and deep experience, we have secured a great long-term strategic partner to help us evolve as a company in the future,” says Byers.
Ansys and Microsoft consistently work together to bring their solutions to customers across multiple industries and help them to overcome the hardware barriers they are facing. According to Byers, one of the key goals behind the partnership with Microsoft is to improve the landscape of engineering simulation and digital transformation to provide its customers with more high-performance computing capabilities.
For example, both firms recently helped Moshman Research and its partner Avigation, an aviation consultancy firm, to create a proof-of-concept model of a ducted fan blade. Originally, the model included millions of different elements, resulting in long runtimes which was detrimental to maintaining workflow. To solve the issue, Moshman used Ansys HPC applications on Azure to streamline the workflow and deliver higher computational capabilities.
“We don’t just work with large companies,” says Byers. “Ansys also works with many consulting firms, startups and innovators who are also seeing great benefits of leveraging Ansys and Microsoft technology to improve simulations and design better products.”
The firm’s most recent solution, Ansys Access on Azure, allows customers to use popular Ansys products in one streamlined workspace on Azure and, according to Byers, is “the result of years of focused cloud optimisation and development.”
“Ansys Access on Azure simplifies the utilisation of customers’ current Ansys licencing and their cloud agreements with Microsoft, ensuring cost-effective management,” he says. “This allows our customers, small or large, to deploy a solution that helps lower cloud cost, provide more control and offer easier deployment options.”
One of the key features of using Ansys Access on Azure is its ease of use.
“The solution empowers customers to use their existing Ansys apps, along with Azure services purchased directly from Microsoft Marketplace, to deliver cost savings, improved data management and greater flexibility,” says Byers.
Another priority for Ansys is improving efficiency for its customers to ensure they can consistently improve their daily operations.
“Ansys is developing everything from simulation software to cloud interface so customers can deploy ready-to-use, pre-configured Ansys apps on Azure,” explains Byers. "Setting up a high-performance computing cloud configuration, particularly in the public cloud, can be tedious and time consuming, but Ansys is taking care of this work to ensure a simple and efficient process for our customers.”
For Byers, the future will see further innovation between Microsoft and Ansys as they continue to help organisations to do more with less.
“Having been a simulation engineer, I can remember many times when I cut corners or pulled up short in the work I wanted to do simply because I did not have enough computer power available,” explains Byers.
“I fully expect we will see more significantly larger and more impressive simulations as we roll out Ansys Access on Azure, and we’ll have a lot of happy customers that realise they don’t need to compromise on their simulations due to a lack of power. In the long run, this will accelerate innovation at these companies and be a win-win-win for Ansys, Microsoft and our customers.”
This article was originally published in the Summer 2024 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.