BIOS IT and CERN - a ten year tried-and-tested partnership

BIOS IT is a global design house, systems builder and integrated solution provider for performance computing. They construct bespoke clusters and appliances from the ground up. They have locations across the globe, with its HQ in London.

Areas of expertise at BIOS IT include cluster architecture, performance computation, acceleration chips, storage, networking, cluster management, AI and deep learning, and virtualisation.

BIOS IT is well established at CERN and has an excellent track record, having won several high-value contracts over the last 10 years and taking part in a recent research and development project to design a future scientific compute platform around flexible cloud architecture.

CERN pushes the boundaries in data generation and storage and has exacting requirements, with some equipment in remote locations that cannot be accessed for years at a time, while other machines run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, supporting thousands of researchers worldwide.

This means stable, reliable, meticulously engineered solutions, designed and constructed to stringent specifications. In the case of BIOS-IT, the challenge was designing, delivering, and supporting bespoke computing servers and storage devices (JBODs) to fulfil CERN’s unique requirements.

With over a decade of collaboration with CERN, BIOS-IT has cultivated a team of in-house specialists within their highly skilled engineering department. As CERN’s needs have evolved, BIOS-IT has concurrently grown and refined their processes, working in close partnership with CERN’s technical experts.

Glenn Rosenberg, general manager at BIOS-IT, says, “This is not merely a supplier – buyer relationship, but rather a decade-long tried-and-tested partnership. From CERN’s perspective we have the expertise, we are a safe pair of hands, taking ownership of any issues and deploying technicians to resolve them promptly. CERN is assured of consistency in both our team and our processes, which are tailored to deliver precisely what they require.”

“Doing business with CERN once you have everything in place is really good,” says Glenn. “CERN are very specific in their requirements and are very open about needing the best value. It can be a tough learning curve but aligning your processes to the expectations of CERN works well. The level of transparency in procurement is very clear and specific, requirements are unambiguous so if you can meet all of the criteria you just need to have the best price. The transparency mitigates risk because you know exactly what you have to achieve. Also it is a true partnership – CERN want you to succeed and will help suppliers deliver.”

STFC’s UK Industrial Liaison Office has worked with BIOS-IT and CERN to ensure both organisations get the most out of the partnership, played a pivoting role in facilitating the partnership.

“We have been collaborating with BIOS-IT for several years now, and we have been consistently satisfied with the quality of their products as well as with the level of support they provide,” says Eric Bonfillou, deputy group leader of CERN’s IT Fabric group.

The partnership with CERN has catalysed a significant enhancement in BIOS-IT’s quality management, processing, and product testing methodologies. Rosenberg explains, “CERN’s need for innovation and delivery means we pull a product more rapidly through our processes, getting our products to market more quickly.” It has also led to process efficiencies in our processes that benefit BIOS-IT dealing with other companies.

The collaboration’s impact extends beyond operational improvements, Rosenberg notes.