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Solution Brief

ACTIVATE and Open Source Tools

Manage Open Source Collaboration with a Unified Control Plane

What is Parallel Works ACTIVATE?

Parallel Works ACTIVATE is a compute control plane that empowers teams to seamlessly provision, manage, and share compute resources at scale across hybrid environments (on-premises and cloud). Designed to simplify infrastructure complexity, ACTIVATE enhances productivity and collaboration through intuitive interfaces and API-driven processes.

With advanced cost control, budgeting tools, and support for flexible cluster creation, ACTIVATE helps organizations optimize high-performance computing for research, simulation, and AI workloads.

ACTIVATE interacts with various open-source tools such as Kubernetes (k8s) and OpenStack while also offering similar functionality to open-source HPC platforms.

ACTIVATE for Open Source Tools

Kubernetes Integration

  • Simplified UI/API, GPU orchestration, usage tracking, cost control, and unified access management
  • Deploys workloads directly into Kubernetes clusters
  • Manages GPU fractionalization and smart workload placement
  • Offers a unified UI, API, and CLI layer over Kubernetes for technical and non-technical users
  • Enables multi-cluster orchestration and full workload portability

OpenStack Integration

  • Unified hybrid control, access management, policy enforcement
  • One-click deployment of clusters using batch schedulers (Slurm, PBS, LSF), Kubernetes, or direct VMs
  • Support for multi-tenant teams with flexible cluster sharing and collaboration
  • Dynamic provisioning of storage volumes (e.g., NetApp ONTAP) with hybrid bursting to AWS FSx for ONTAP
  • Real-time cost tracking, usage dashboards, and billable resource tagging
  • Seamless integration across OpenStack and cloud environments for workload migration or bursting

Open Source HPC Tools Comparison

  • Modern interface, hybrid/cloud capable, application support and maintenance, and automation
  • Unified portal for accessing on-prem, cloud, and hybrid compute
  • Native support for containers, virtual machines, and Kubernetes
  • Cost tracking, GPU sharing, and usage analytics unavailable in most open-source HPC tools
  • One-click access to Jupyter, RStudio, remote desktops, VS Code, and more
  • Built-in collaboration, user role management, and multi-site support out of the box