Grid Computing

Vanguard's Grid Computing Add-in gives you the ability to run enterprise-scale simulations by dividing the simulation task between many computers.

Monte Carlo Simulations

Monte Carlo simulations are, by their very nature, extremely CPU intensive. They can involve repeatedly evaluating a model thousands of times. Even for modestly-sized models, simulation runtimes can become quite large. Without the Grid Computing Add-in, the Vanguard System™ can run simulations at about 60 times the speed of similar models in spreadsheets. This means a simulation that takes an hour in a spreadsheet will take only one minute in the Vanguard System. However, the Vanguard System is designed to support models that are much larger than any spreadsheet can handle. This support includes keeping simulation runtimes manageable even while running the largest of models.

Put Supercomputing Power on your Desktop

Each Vanguard user has supercomputer processing power at his or her disposal. Furthermore, this high-end processing power is achieved very inexpensively because the grid can be made up of existing computers, using idle CPU time.

When you run a simulation using the Grid Computing Add-in, the system gives you the option of simulating on your desktop computer or running the simulation on the Enterprise Grid. The Enterprise Grid can be a cluster of computers that acts as a dedicated grid. Or, it can be made up of individual computers on your network that all assist in performing the simulation. This collection of individual computers can be spread throughout your organization, contained in one or more department(s), or made up of just a few engineers working together. Using idle CPU time, and running completely in the background, the Grid Computing Add-in turns each individual computer into a grid host without disturbing anyone's work.

Upon initiating a grid simulation, the Vanguard System sends the job to your central Vanguard Server™. The server then generates a list of all hosts that are online and divides the job between the hosts based on their relative processing power. Each host performs a portion of the simulation and sends its results back to the server. When the simulation is complete, the Vanguard Server merges results from all hosts and sends the results back to your desktop computer.