O C F Plc

What O C F Plc does

OCF Plc (legal entity OCF Limited) is a UK-based high performance computing (HPC) systems integrator founded around 2000 and headquartered in Chapeltown, Sheffield, operating with a team of 11–50 employees. The company designs, procures, implements, and supports tailored HPC, storage, AI/ML, cloud, and quantum-readiness solutions for research-intensive universities, healthcare and life sciences organisations, and engineering and manufacturing firms. Its portfolio combines tier-1 vendor hardware (NVIDIA, Dell, IBM, Lenovo, AMD, Intel) with proprietary software, most notably OCF Steel — an in-house HPC and AI management platform covering bare metal provisioning, SLURM workload scheduling, monitoring, and reporting — alongside managed services, project management, and design consultancy.

OCF earns revenue through three streams: hardware and software resale (compute, GPU, storage, networking, and licences from its 35+ vendor ecosystem), professional services and bespoke solution design, and recurring managed services supporting customers with limited in-house HPC skills. The company goes to market primarily via direct enterprise field sales, with additional reach into UK public sector and higher education buyers through framework agreements (including the UK HPC Framework, ITS4062 SU) and Dell Technologies Gold Partner channels. All OCF personnel are security screened, with many holding SC and DV clearances, and the firm maintains ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications — credentials that qualify it for sensitive government, defence-adjacent, and academic research workloads.

Notable reference deployments include the Sulis supercomputer at the University of Warwick (25,728 AMD Epyc cores, 90 NVIDIA A100 GPUs, 1.8 PFLOPS, 2PB storage), the Bede tier-2 supercomputer serving the N8 Research Partnership from Durham, the Maxwell system at the University of Aberdeen, the MAGEO GPU cluster at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (which reduced an AI training workload from 16 months to 10 days), the Cardiff University FAIR Campus storage platform, and HPC clusters supporting Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute and RJM International. The company remains privately held with no disclosed institutional investors, funding rounds, or M&A activity in the available data.

Name

O C F Plc

Legal name

OCF Limited

Website

https://ocf.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OCF Plc is a UK-based HPC systems integrator that designs, deploys, and manages high-performance computing, storage, AI/ML, cloud, and quantum-ready infrastructure for universities, healthcare/life sciences organisations, and engineering/manufacturing firms, combining tier-1 vendor hardware with its proprietary OCF Steel management platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

HPC Systems Integration

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Electronic Computers (3571), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

HPC-as-a-Product / On-Prem Managed HPC (Integrated Hardware + Ops) (HDACAOAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI/HPC Converged Systems (Hybrid Training/Simulation) (HDACAOAD), HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images) (HDACAOAH)

Keywords

• High performance computing
• HPC systems integration
• AI infrastructure solutions
• Enterprise storage systems
• Cloud HPC services

Headquarters

HQ city

Chapeltown

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Hardware and Software Sales: OCF sources and integrates hardware (servers, GPUs, storage) and software from its extensive vendor partner network (NVIDIA, IBM, Lenovo, Dell, AMD, Intel, etc.) and resells complete HPC systems as a solution integrator. Revenue is generated through the sale of hardware appliances, compute nodes, GPU servers, storage systems, networking, and associated software licences.
2. Professional Services & Design Consultancy: OCF's HPC consultants provide bespoke solution design and engineering services to address HPC challenges at any scale, from initial requirements analysis and architecture design through to implementation and commissioning. Services include solution design, technology supply, implementation, and ongoing technical support.
3. Managed Services: OCF offers ongoing managed services for HPC environments, providing world-class support to organisations impacted by the shortfall in available HPC skills. This includes full operational management of HPC clusters, monitoring, and reporting. The first year of managed services is bundled with certain solution deployments (e.g., Cardiff University FAIR Campus storage service).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

OCF designs, supplies, implements, and supports tailored High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, AI/ML infrastructure, and high-performance storage and cloud solutions for research, healthcare, and engineering organisations in the UK. Acting as a vendor-neutral systems integrator, OCF combines hardware from tier-1 vendors (NVIDIA, Dell, IBM, Lenovo, AMD, Intel) with its proprietary OCF Steel orchestration platform and partner software to deliver end-to-end HPC platforms backed by professional design consultancy, project management, and ongoing managed services.

Product overview

OCF Plc provides a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise HPC, AI, and storage solutions organized as an integrated technology stack. The core offering revolves around OCF Steel, a unified management platform that orchestrates HPC infrastructure including compute clusters, GPU systems for deep learning, and high-performance storage. The product portfolio spans High Performance Computing Solutions (turnkey infrastructure), AI & Deep Learning Solutions (GPU-accelerated compute for ML training), Storage Solutions (parallel file systems and enterprise storage), and Cloud Solutions (hybrid/cloud deployment options). Supporting tools include the EF Portal for resource access and DCV for remote visualization. The company operates as both a technology integrator deploying third-party solutions (SLURM, PBS Professional, BeeGFS, Lustre, IBM Storage Scale) and a managed service provider.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OCF Steel — HPC & AI Management Platform Proprietary HPC and AI infrastructure management platform that orchestrates bare-metal provisioning, job scheduling (SLURM), storage integration, authentication, monitoring, and reporting across HPC and AI environments. Sold as a managed service to organisations that need turnkey HPC operations without in-house expertise.
• High Performance Computing Solutions End-to-end HPC cluster design, supply, implementation, and commissioning for research, engineering, and scientific customers, combining tier-1 hardware (NVIDIA, Dell, Lenovo, AMD, Intel) with orchestration and storage software and OCF's design consultancy.
• AI & Deep Learning Solutions GPU-accelerated infrastructure and services for machine learning and deep learning, from foundational implementations to complex scaling, supporting workloads such as Earth Observation analytics, scientific research computing, and large model training.
• Storage Solutions High-performance data storage solutions for AI, HPC, and enterprise workloads, including parallel file systems, scale-out storage arrays, tape archiving, and data management/orchestration software, scaling from terabytes to petabytes.
• Cloud HPC Solutions Expertise across public and private clouds, cloud-native architectures, and container technologies for HPC workloads, including cloud burst, hybrid-cloud deployment, and managed cloud-HPC services.
• Managed Services Ongoing managed services for HPC and storage environments, providing full operational management of clusters, monitoring, reporting, and helpdesk support, addressing the shortage of in-house HPC skills. The first year of managed services is bundled with certain deployments such as Cardiff University's FAIR Campus storage service.
• Professional Services & Design Consultancy Bespoke HPC and AI design consultancy, including requirements analysis, architecture design, technology selection, and solution engineering delivered by experienced HPC consultants for organisations starting or upgrading HPC and AI capabilities.
• Project Management Service Structured project management of HPC, AI, and storage deployments by PRINCE2 and ITIL v3 certified teams, covering conception, delivery, and transition into operational support.
• Quantum Computing Hybrid Readiness Listed solution covering quantum-computing hybrid-readiness offerings for OCF customers exploring the integration of quantum computing with classical HPC workloads.

Quantifiable outcome

• CFD simulations reduced from 1 week to 1 day — an 86% reduction in analysis time
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration14 records

AI capability3 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and key.

• NVIDIAcoreTechnology or IntegrationOCF is a certified NVIDIA partner offering a comprehensive range of NVIDIA GPU solutions including AI servers, the NVIDIA DGX family, H100/H200/B200 GPU platforms, and NVIDIA networking (Mellanox InfiniBand). OCF provides NVIDIA solutions across its HPC, AI, and storage solution lines.
• Dell TechnologiescoreTechnology or IntegrationOCF holds Gold Partner status in the Dell Technologies Partner Program. Through this partnership, OCF offers Dell AI Servers optimised for acceleration and purpose-built for AI and HPC, data centre servers with enhanced energy efficiency and cyber resilience, and enterprise data storage solutions.
• IBMcoreTechnology or IntegrationOCF offers IBM solutions including IBM Storage Scale (parallel filesystem and data management platform), IBM Power Systems servers (used in OCF's Bede supercomputer for the N8 Research Partnership), and IBM tape storage solutions for long-term data archiving.
• LenovocoreTechnology or IntegrationOCF offers Lenovo server and storage solutions, including the ThinkSystem SR780a V3 liquid-cooled GPU server and ThinkStation workstation line. Lenovo hardware has been used in OCF's HPC deployments (e.g., Maxwell at the University of Aberdeen).
• AMDcoreTechnology or IntegrationAMD is described as the 'high performance and adaptive computing leader'. OCF deploys AMD Epyc processors in its HPC solutions (e.g., the Sulis supercomputer at the University of Warwick features 25,728 AMD Epyc computing cores).
• IntelcoreTechnology or IntegrationOCF offers Intel-based server and data centre solutions including Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators, providing a complementary CPU and AI acceleration platform to its NVIDIA and AMD GPU offerings.
• Red HatkeyTechnology or IntegrationOCF offers Red Hat enterprise open-source software solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux and associated HPC/cloud software stack components, as part of its solution architecture.
• DDNkeyTechnology or IntegrationDDN (Data Direct Networks) is a specialist high-performance storage vendor whose solutions are offered by OCF for demanding HPC and AI storage workloads requiring extreme throughput and scalability.
• BeeGFSkeyTechnology or IntegrationBeeGFS is a parallel clustered file system offered by OCF, designed for easy installation and management with strong performance characteristics. It is suitable for HPC scratch storage and can be deployed on standard x86 server hardware or storage arrays. Used in OCF deployments (e.g., Maxwell at the University of Aberdeen).
• LustrekeyTechnology or IntegrationLustre is an open-source high-performance parallel filesystem offered by OCF, used in many HPC installations worldwide. OCF can also offer DDN's EXAScalar Lustre-based solution with commercial support for financially constrained environments.
• Starfish StoragekeyTechnology or IntegrationStarfish Storage provides unstructured data management software that OCF uses to tag, catalogue, and organise data across virtualised storage environments. Deployed at Cardiff University's FAIR Campus research data service to make research data searchable, findable, and manageable.
• ANSYSkeyTechnology or IntegrationANSYS provides engineering simulation software. OCF's HPC solutions (including the RJM International deployment) utilise ANSYS Fluent and ANSYS HPC applications, enabling computational fluid dynamics simulations for automotive design, power plant emissions analysis, and other engineering use cases.
• UCitkeyTechnology or IntegrationUCit helps customers deploy and run efficient HPC x AI infrastructures on smart hybrid cloud resources while controlling carbon footprints. Their solutions include OKA (HPC resource optimisation platform), CCME (cloud cluster deployment on AWS), WorkCloud (infrastructure strategy), and Kyanopi (environmental impact LCA for HPC).

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• ClusterVision: Netherlands-based specialist HPC systems integrator delivering turnkey clusters, storage and HPC-as-a-service to European universities and research institutes. Highly comparable to OCF as a competing boutique integrator with similar customer verticals and vendor-agnostic positioning.
• Boston Limited: UK-based HPC and storage integrator supplying servers, GPU systems and high-performance storage to research and enterprise customers. Direct competitor to OCF in the UK market with comparable hardware-resale-plus-services model.
• StackHPC: UK specialist in HPC cloud and OpenStack-based software-defined HPC platforms for research and academic computing. Comparable to OCF in addressing UK academic HPC customers with a software-led, vendor-neutral consultancy approach.

Broad incumbents

• Atos (Eviden): Global IT services group with a dedicated HPC practice (Eviden/Bull) delivering supercomputers to research and enterprise customers worldwide. Overlaps with OCF on large academic and government HPC contracts but at materially greater scale and breadth.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE): Global HPC server and services vendor (including Cray) delivering end-to-end HPC and AI supercomputers to academic, government and enterprise customers. Competes with OCF both as a hardware vendor and as a direct integrator on large UK and European tenders.
• Dell Technologies: Tier-1 HPC server, storage and OEM integrator that competes with OCF both as a partner and as a direct supplier of HPC systems. Dell's PowerEdge and HPC solutions overlap heavily with OCF's integrated offerings.
• Lenovo: Tier-1 HPC server vendor whose ThinkSystem hardware is resold by OCF (e.g., Maxwell at Aberdeen). Lenovo also offers direct HPC integration services, making it both a partner and competitor to OCF's HPC integrator business.
• Fujitsu: Global HPC system vendor offering PRIMERGY servers and end-to-end HPC integration services to academic and enterprise customers in EMEA. Comparable to OCF's HPC systems integration offering, particularly across European public-sector tenders.
• IBM: Supplier of IBM Power Systems, IBM Storage Scale and tape archive solutions that OCF integrates (e.g., Bede on Power9, Cardiff FAIR on IBM Storage Scale). IBM's broader HPC and hybrid cloud portfolio competes with OCF on integrated deals.

Regional players

• OVHcloud: European cloud and bare-metal infrastructure provider with HPC and AI-optimised instances. Competes with OCF on the cloud/HPC and hybrid-cloud component of its portfolio, primarily in Europe, but does not offer the same on-premise HPC integration services.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ocf_hpc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ocf

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about O C F Plc