# Cruising Altitude: Cloud vs. HPC Day-2 Operations

**40-min BoF · MWRCD 2026 · Scientific Cloud Affinity Group**

> Day 1 is installation. Day 2 is the long game: keeping it running, growing, and useful.

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## The Core Idea

Cloud and HPC face the same day-2 challenges and solve them differently. This session draws them out through facilitated discussion.

## Cloud vs. HPC at a Glance

| Area       | Cloud (OpenStack)                  | HPC                                |
|------------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------|
| Upgrades   | Rolling, interdependent services   | Drain queue, maintenance window    |
| Monitoring | Distributed tracing, multi-service | Node health, scheduler, filesystem |
| Capacity   | Overcommit, quotas, flavors        | Fair-share, dedicated resources    |
| Onboarding | Self-service, API-driven           | Allocations, modules, job scripts  |
| Staffing   | Full-stack generalists             | Specialized roles                  |
| Workloads  | Long-running services, K8s         | Batch jobs, parallel computation   |

## Six Scenarios (pick 2 based on room check)

| # | Scenario                           | Key Comparison                                                                         |
|---|------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | The Dreaded Upgrade                | HPC: disruptive but simple. Cloud: less disruptive but interdependent                  |
| 2 | First-Time Researcher              | HPC: high entry bar, prepared users. Cloud: fast onboarding, more user responsibility  |
| 3 | Why Cloud Instead of HPC?          | HPC = batch + dedicated. Cloud = persistent services + user control                    |
| 4 | The Bus Factor                     | HPC knowledge: deep & narrow. Cloud knowledge: broad & shallow                         |
| 5 | Thinking About Standing Up a Cloud | Not a tech decision, but a staffing and operating-model decision                       |
| 6 | The Researcher Who Wants Both      | The future is cloud AND HPC; data movement between environments is the real pain point |

### Audience-based picks

- **Mostly operators:** 1 + 4
- **Mixed roles:** 2 + 3
- **Cloud-curious:** 5 + 6
- **If convergence emerges:** swap 6 in for one of the picks above

## Session Flow (32 min effective)

```
0–2    Opening: who am I, define day-2
2–5    Room check: cloud / HPC / both / considering?
5–23   Two scenarios, ~9 min each
23–29  Takeaways: differences, surprises, practices to borrow
29–32  Close: Cloud Affinity Group call-to-action
```

## Stay in the Conversation

- Slack: `#cloud-affinity-group` on MWRCD Slack
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