Learn some practical strategies for reducing the cost of EDA Simulation environments with OpenLava and Teraproc - for more information visit http://www.teraproc.com/teraproc-blog/eda-cost-savers/.

1. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
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Ten Ways to Reduce the Cost of EDA Infrastructure

2. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 1Save Money with Faster
Hardware
EDA License features are costly, turning traditional TCO
calculations on their head. When high value license
features cost tens of thousands per year, it only makes
sense to use the fastest hardware possible. Spending
double on infrastructure to gain 30% in performance can
reduce required license features, with potentially huge
annual savings.

3. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 2Revisit the Cloud
For EDA firms who view running in the cloud as cost
prohibitive or risky, you may want to do a re-think – An
under-appreciated value of the cloud is the continuous
technical refresh built into the price making it easier to be
up and running on the latest hardware, reducing license
checkout time, reducing cost and boosting productivity.

4. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 3Reduce Workload
Management Costs
While the cost of tools matter most, workload
management can be a big expense for EDA firms. Open-
source OpenLava provides most of the capabilities of IBM
Platform LSF but is completely open-source and free. You
can still obtain commercial support, while reducing your
workload management license costs to zero!

5. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 4Avoid Costly and
Disruptive Migrations
In an effort to reduce costs, some firms migrate to open-
source workload managers like Grid Engine, Moab or
Condor. The problem? - As capable as these alternatives
are, they are different than Platform LSF. This means a
costly and disruptive migration that could be avoided by
simply moving to OpenLava, a supported scheduler that
maintains compatibility with Platform LSF.

6. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 5Bend the cost-curve with
cheaper support pricing
As EDA clients know, core and thread counts per socket are
increasing. When you refresh your servers, you may end up
doubling your core count. The problem? IBM’s RVU license
and support pricing for Platform LSF is based on the
number of cores. Support costs can double, and you may
need to buy more licenses. OpenLava avoids this hidden tax
with node-based support pricing and free licenses.

7. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 6Provision for average
rather than peak demand
Cloud-bursting will not be appropriate for all applications,
but depending on your software licenses, it may be
practical to burst jobs to the cloud dynamically during
periods of peak demand. Teraproc’s HPC cluster-as-a-
service makes this very economical allowing you to
efficiently provision and pay for resources only when you
need them.

8. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 7Provision clusters faster
for reduced cost
A dirty little secret about cloud bursting is that it demands
fast, agile provisioning to actually save money. If it takes
you two days to setup a cluster in the cloud that you need
for just four hours, the economics won’t work. Teraproc’s
HPC cluster-as-a-service allows you to deploy large clusters
in just minutes helping you get full utilization of the cycles
you are paying for.

9. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 8Take advantage of Spot
Pricing
Spot pricing is a mechanism available on Amazon Web
Services that allows customers to bid for server capacity
and name their price in an open market. According to
Amazon, using spot pricing for non-critical workloads can
yield an 80% reduction in infrastructure costs. Teraproc’s
HPC cluster-as-a-service provides seamless access to spot
pricing capabilities for greater savings.

10. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
# 9Consolidate clusters for
additional savings
Many EDA firms run separate compute clusters to service
different locations. The problem with this is that it is
difficult to share license features between clusters, and
the distributed nature of your EDA farms may be costing
you money. By consolidating to a smaller number of
clusters you can possibly share license features more
efficiently and reduce costs.

11. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
One of the reasons that Platform LSF is so popular among
EDA firms is that it supports License scheduling, allowing
features to be allocated and pre-empted based on
configurable policies. Firms getting started with License
Scheduling may wish to consult with Teraproc, and learn
whether new License Scheduling features in OpenLava can
support the use cases they have in mind.
#10Use License
Scheduling

12. Copyright 2015 Teraproc Inc. All rights reserved
OpenLava
Achieve Savings with Teraproc,
your friend in the EDA business
Whether you are mildly intrigued, or not convinced in the
least – simply exploring these options may provide you the
negotiating leverage you need when it comes time to
discuss your next software or support agreement!
Before you negotiate, contact us and see if we can help
you take cost out of your EDA environment –
info@teraproc.com