ACTIVATE is a control plane that connects researchers and engineers to computing resources on premises, in the cloud, and at GPU providers under one identity. Parallel Works runs it as a service, or the customer runs it in its own cloud account or data center.
One login to compute, data, workflows, and AI
Users reach ACTIVATE from the browser, the CLI and API, or AI assistants. The control plane handles identity and groups, provisioning, workflows, sessions, the AI gateway, and allocations and metering across:
- Cloud clusters on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud
- GPU providers, including CoreWeave, Lambda, and Voltage Park
- On-premises systems running Slurm and PBS
- Kubernetes clusters, with namespaces by group
- Storage, including buckets and filesystems
- AI models, hosted and external
Workflows are defined once in YAML and launch from a form on any connected resource. The same code base, hardened containers, and base images run on the shared Parallel Works platform, in a customer's cloud account, and on customer hardware.
Managed GPU clusters
Parallel Works runs a dedicated GPU reservation at a cloud or GPU provider as one managed cluster, with per-team accounts and quotas. The provider carries the infrastructure SLA. Parallel Works carries the user-experience SLA, at 99.5 percent monthly, and first-line support. Workloads move between providers under the same login, group mapping, Slurm accounts, and storage paths.
Cost, education, and licensing
Every cost record carries the user, group, and project, and budgets notify, freeze, or stop clusters at the thresholds an administrator sets. Universities connect campus single sign-on, burst from campus clusters to the cloud under the same accounts, and run notebooks, remote desktops, and VS Code sessions for courses and labs.
Teams up to about 100 users license per user on the shared platform. Larger programs take a program license per deployment, with unlimited users and a Parallel Works mission engineering team. Academic institutions pay 50 percent of commercial list. See pricing for details.