Distinguished Speaker: C.J. Newburn (NVIDIA)

 

Title: Datacenter-wide Security by Default

 

Abstract

HPC datacenters are large and shared across many users for efficiency. The last era of HPC users were highly-technical and conscientious experts. Increasingly, HPC infrastructure is being democratized to span a diverse set of users with varying concerns for and proficiency in security. There is an inevitable threat from malicious attacks or inadvertent interference from bad actors, supply chain threats, noisy neighbors, or nosey admins. To thwart this, we recommend a defensible architecture with continuous improvements in applying the principles of zero trust in a range of settings from the edge to the cloud to federations of multiple clusters.

This talk will present the principles that NVIDIA follows to design in security by default. This involves attribute-based access control, modular design, and clear ownership of responsibility. The security friction is reduced enough for novice users to get an easy onramp, while customers retain full control over policies, with both visibility and ownership over security issues. We employ integrated datacenter-wide hardware and software solutions to create isolation of the network, storage, compute, and tenants from administrators.

We introduce new hardware in DPUs, switches, and features like confidential computing, as well as software solutions that involve scheduling, monitoring, AI-driven analysis, management, and security services. We’ll connect participants to the application of these principles by providing a wide range of real-world examples. Join us for a fun talk that’s sure to spark stimulating discussion on what we can do together to build upon a zero trust foundation and move the needle against the adversary!

Bio:

Chris J. Newburn, who goes by CJ, is a Distinguished Engineer who drives HPC strategy and the SW product roadmap in NVIDIA Compute Software, with a special focus on data center architecture and security, IO, systems, and programming models for scale. He is NVIDIA’s architect for zero trust, Magnum IO, and security-driven storage solutions. He is a community builder with a passion for extending the core capabilities of hardware and software platforms from HPC into AI, data science, and visualization. He's delighted to have worked on volume products that his Mom used and that help researchers do their life's work in science that previously wasn't possible.

Invited Talk: Lowell Wofford (AWS)

 

Title: Datacenter-wide Security by Default

 

Abstract

HPC systems and workloads have a unique set of security challenges. HPC workloads run on AWS can leverage cloud tooling to mitigate some traditional HPC security challenges but also introducing new security considerations. We will compare and contrast traditional HPC security with cloud-based HPC security, demonstrate how AWS’s secure-by-design architecture can address some common security challenges, and discuss how to apply best-practices to build end-to-end security for HPC workloads on AWS.

Bio:

Lowell Wofford is a Principal Solutions Architect in HPC at AWS. Over the past couple of decades, he has worked in many aspects of HPC, from scientific algorithms to system design. In his current role, Lowell is helping customers bring HPC to Cloud using AWS. Prior to joining AWS, he worked in national laboratories and academia focusing on HPC for Physics, Biology, and Bioinformatics. Lowell studied Graduate Physics at Pennsylvania State University and holds a Masters in Physics and Philosophy from Columbia University.