ACTIVATE vs Traditional HPC
Traditional HPC infrastructure requires massive upfront investment, months of setup, and dedicated staff to maintain. ACTIVATE delivers the same compute power with none of the overhead.
Feature Comparison
How ACTIVATE improves on every aspect of traditional HPC
| Feature | Traditional HPC | ACTIVATE |
|---|---|---|
Provisioning Time | Weeks/months | Minutes |
Scaling | Fixed capacity, manual | Auto-scaling on demand |
Multi-site Management | Siloed systems | Unified control plane |
Cost Model | Large CapEx, underutilization | Pay-as-you-go, spot optimization |
Cloud Access | Complex integration | Native multi-cloud |
User Access | SSH, VPN complexity | Web portal, SSO |
Job Scheduling | Local scheduler only | Any scheduler + workflows |
Security Compliance | DIY burden | Built-in IL5, FedRAMP |
Maintenance | Dedicated staff required | Managed platform |
Time to Science | Days to weeks | Minutes to hours |
Why Teams Are Moving to ACTIVATE
Real advantages that accelerate your time to science
Minutes, Not Months
Provision fully-configured HPC clusters in minutes instead of waiting weeks or months for hardware procurement and setup.
Scale on Demand
Automatically scale compute resources based on workload. No more capacity planning or underutilized hardware.
Multi-Cloud Freedom
Run workloads on AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI. Avoid vendor lock-in and optimize for price, performance, or compliance.
Pay Only for What You Use
Eliminate CapEx with pay-as-you-go pricing. Use spot instances to reduce costs by up to 90%.
No VPN Required
Secure web-based access to any cluster. No complex VPN configurations or SSH key management.
Built-in Compliance
IL5 ATO, FedRAMP-aligned controls, and enterprise security features included—not bolted on.
Easy Migration Path
Your existing workflows work on ACTIVATE without modification. We support the same schedulers (Slurm, PBS), the same tools, and the same scripts you already use.
- Slurm and PBS scripts work as-is
- No application rewrites required
- Gradual migration at your own pace
- Hybrid mode: cloud + on-prem together
- Dedicated migration support available
Average time for teams to migrate their first production workload to ACTIVATE
Ready to Modernize Your HPC?
See how ACTIVATE can transform your computing infrastructure with a personalized demo.