Ohio Supercomputer Center

What Ohio Supercomputer Center does

The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), established in 1987, is a state-funded high-performance computing (HPC) provider operating as a division of the Ohio Department of Higher Education and a charter member of the Ohio Technology Consortium (OH-TECH). The center serves Ohio's academic institutions, state-funded researchers, and industrial clients by providing shared access to GPU-accelerated computing clusters, petabyte-scale storage, and software tools that would be cost-prohibitive for individual universities to maintain independently. Customers include Ohio State, Ohio University, Case Western Reserve, Kent State, Wright State, Mount Union, and a portfolio of industrial users across aerospace (Spire Global, TotalSim), manufacturing (AltaSim), energy (CRES), and engineering services (D2H, Emc²).

OSC's core technical platform is Open OnDemand, an open-source web portal OSC developed and launched in 2017 with NSF funding that has since been adopted by over 2,100 locations in 100 countries. Underneath the portal, the center operates multiple clusters including the GPU-accelerated Ascend cluster (96 NVIDIA GPUs, 48 AMD CPUs, 200 Gbps interconnect, 2,304 cores, named for Ohio's aviation heritage), the Pitzer cluster (650+ nodes, ~30,000 cores), the Oakley cluster (8,300 Intel Xeon processors, 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs), and the planned Cardinal cluster. Storage infrastructure includes an 8.6 PB IBM-backed high-performance expansion, a Columbus tape library scaling to 23.5 PB (with roadmap to 141 PB), and a Cleveland disaster-recovery twin connected at 100 Gbps via OARnet.

The business model combines state appropriations through the Ohio Department of Higher Education, federal research grants (notably NSF, including a $5.1M ICICLE AI Institute award shared with Case Western and University of Cincinnati and a $1.5M Open OnDemand sustainability grant), and usage-based industrial fees ($1 per CPU hour). The go-to-market combines direct sales via Campus Champions and the AweSim industrial engagement program, self-service web portals (Client Portal, System Gateway, Open OnDemand), and global open-source software distribution. Revenue is not publicly disclosed.

Name

Ohio Supercomputer Center

Legal name

Ohio Supercomputer Center

Website

https://osc.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

OSC is a state-funded HPC provider serving Ohio's universities and industrial clients with GPU-accelerated clusters and the globally adopted Open OnDemand web portal. Operating since 1987 as a division of the Ohio Department of Higher Education.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

High Performance Computing

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Training (61142)

SIC

Electronic Computers (3571), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Computer Storage Devices (3572)

akta.pro primary industry

HPC Supercomputers & Turnkey Systems (HDACAOAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

GPU-Accelerated HPC Systems (HDACAOAC), HPC-as-a-Product / On-Prem Managed HPC (Integrated Hardware + Ops) (HDACAOAK), HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images) (HDACAOAH), HPC / AI-Optimized Data Center Facilities (HDABACAJ)

Keywords

• High performance computing
• Supercomputing services
• HPC infrastructure
• GPU computing clusters
• Research data storage

Headquarters

HQ city

Columbus

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. State Government Funding: OSC is a division of the Ohio Department of Higher Education and receives state government appropriations as part of the Ohio Technology Consortium (OH-TECH) to provide statewide HPC infrastructure for academic institutions.
2. Federal Research Grants: OSC receives NSF funding for Open OnDemand development ($1.5M sustainability grant), ICICLE AI Institute partnership ($5.1M awarded to Case Western, OSC, and UC), and various other federal research initiatives. These grants support infrastructure upgrades and software development.
3. Industrial Client Fees: Ohio industrial clients pay for HPC usage. Rate reduced to $1 per CPU hour effective April 2006. Academic clients pay according to the academic fee model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Ohio Supercomputer Center provides high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and services to Ohio's academic institutions and industrial clients. Its core offering centers on the Open OnDemand web portal, which delivers browser-based access to GPU-accelerated clusters (Ascend, Cardinal), petabyte-scale research data storage, and software libraries for AI/ML, simulation, and data analytics workloads.

Product overview

Ohio Supercomputer Center provides a unified HPC-as-a-service platform serving Ohio's academic and industrial research community. The core offering centers on Open OnDemand, an open-source web portal that provides browser-based access to HPC resources without requiring command-line expertise. Underlying this access layer are multiple GPU-accelerated clusters (notably the Ascend Cluster), comprehensive research data storage infrastructure (scaling to 141 PB with tape backup), and specialized services for AI/machine learning, data analytics, and computational simulation. Education programs and dedicated research software engineering support round out the portfolio, enabling everything from digital art creation to genomic analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Open OnDemand: An open-source web portal developed by OSC that provides secure, browser-based access to HPC systems. Used by HPC centers worldwide to offer researchers and students easy access to computational resources.

Products and services

• Open OnDemand Open-source web portal developed by OSC that provides secure, browser-based access to HPC systems, enabling researchers and students to launch interactive desktops, development environments, and graphical applications without command-line expertise.
• Ascend Cluster GPU-accelerated high performance computing cluster providing advanced AI, machine learning, modeling, simulation, and data analytics capabilities for academic and industrial researchers.
• Cluster Computing Services

Quantifiable outcome

• COVID-19 models featured in Governor DeWine's daily press conferences
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability9 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

20 partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• University of OtagomajorTechnology or Integration · 21 May 2026University of Otago in New Zealand deployed Open OnDemand to centralize HPC access for 21,000+ students across five campuses. OSC enables global accessibility to advanced computing via web browser, with Entra ID two-factor authentication.
• Ohio Technology Consortium (OH-TECH)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSC is a charter member of OH-TECH, a state technology consortium that also includes OARnet (Ohio Academic Resources Network) and OhioLINK. OH-TECH provides shared infrastructure, communications, and digital accessibility services across Ohio higher education.
• Ohio Department of Higher EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSC is a division of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, receiving state appropriations to provide statewide HPC infrastructure for academic institutions and industry.
• National Science Foundation (NSF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNSF provides major funding for Open OnDemand development ($1.5M sustainability grant), ICICLE AI Institute ($5.1M to Case Western, OSC, and UC), ACCESS program support, and workforce development initiatives. Multiple NSF-funded projects support OSC infrastructure and software development.
• The Ohio State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSC is located on Ohio State's west campus. Extensive collaboration with OSU researchers across multiple disciplines including political science, physics, biology, and medical research. OSU's D.K. Panda's group developed MVAPICH2 HPC software used globally.
• IBMmajorTechnology or IntegrationOSC partnered with IBM to expand storage capacity by 8.6 petabytes, nearly tripling the Center's high-performance storage capacity with cutting-edge secure storage options.
• NetAppmajorTechnology or IntegrationOSC works with NetApp for home directories storage upgrade. Home directories doubled storage capacity and are three times faster following seamless update with minimal disruption for clients.
• Dell TechnologiescoreTechnology or IntegrationDell Technologies provides hardware for major HPC clusters including Ascend (Dell servers with AMD CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs) and Cardinal cluster. Dell EMC built Pitzer Cluster (liquid-cooled).
• NVIDIAcoreTechnology or IntegrationNVIDIA provides GPUs for Ascend cluster and other HPC systems. 96 NVIDIA GPUs in Ascend cluster triple OSC's AI/ML capacity.
• AMDcoreTechnology or IntegrationAMD provides CPUs for HPC clusters. Ascend cluster uses 48 AMD CPUs across Dell servers.
• National AI Research ResourcemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSC co-sponsored NSF ACCESS Regional Workshop on AI with National AI Research Resource, attracting nearly 100 faculty, administrators, and students from across the U.S.
• ICICLE AI Institute (NSF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSC serves as core collaborator in NSF AI Institute for Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment (ICICLE). OSC provides HPC and storage resources for AI research. $5.1M NSF grant awarded to Case Western Reserve, OSC, and University of Cincinnati.
• University at BuffalomajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in NSF-funded Open OnDemand development project alongside OSC and Virginia Tech, contributing to open-source web portal for HPC access.
• Virginia TechmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in NSF-funded Open OnDemand development project alongside OSC and University at Buffalo, contributing to open-source web portal for HPC access.
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)majorTechnology or IntegrationNCSA at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign uses Open OnDemand to provide broad access to HPC across disciplines, institutions, and experience levels.
• Case Western Reserve UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead institution for $5.1M NSF AI grant partnered with OSC and University of Cincinnati. Also received cluster through Cluster Ohio program.
• University of CincinnaticoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in $5.1M NSF AI grant with Case Western and OSC. UC's research computing services expanded HPC access through Open OnDemand deployment.
• OARnetcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOARnet (Ohio Academic Resources Network) collaborates with OSC on shared infrastructure projects including disaster recovery data center in Cleveland and 100 Gbps network transport.
• Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG)majorTechnology or IntegrationNAG and OSC announced strategic software licensing partnership giving OSC unlimited use of NAG C, Fortran, and Parallel Libraries for use on OSC's supercomputers.
• Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRES provides pipeline integrity research findings to PRCI consortium for use by pipeline operators across the U.S.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): University-based HPC center operating large-scale HPC clusters for academic and industrial research, with a similar state/regional funding model and industrial engagement programs (e.g., Sun Corridor). Direct functional peer to OSC.
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA): University of Illinois-based HPC center serving broad research computing needs across disciplines. Has deployed Open OnDemand and partners with OSC on NSF-funded development — closest peer in scale, mission, and platform collaboration.
• San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC): UC San Diego-operated HPC center with state and federal funding providing compute, storage, and research data services to academic and industry users. Direct peer in scale, mission, and Open OnDemand adoption.
• Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC): Joint CMU/University of Pittsburgh HPC center providing supercomputing resources to academic and industrial researchers. Operates with very similar mission, industrial engagement, and NSF-funded access model — a direct analog to OSC.
• Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (Purdue): Purdue University's HPC center providing cluster computing, storage, and research consulting to faculty, students, and industry. Comparable scope and industrial engagement in close geographic proximity to Ohio academic clients.

Others

• ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem): NSF-funded national cyberinfrastructure coordination program that allocates HPC resources across multiple partner centers including OSC. Functions as both a peer/competitor for compute allocations and a key funding/distribution channel for OSC.
• XSEDE (Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment): NSF-funded predecessor program to ACCESS providing national HPC coordination across U.S. academic centers. OSC participated as a service provider; useful peer for understanding funding and platform dynamics even after program sunset.

Broad incumbents

• National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): DOE Office of Science user facility at LBNL serving scientific HPC workloads. Larger and federally funded, but provides a peer reference point for high-end storage, AI/ML services, and academic user support models overlapping with OSC.
• Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF): DOE national-lab HPC facility operating some of the world's largest systems for open science. Larger federal peer with overlap on user base and AI/HPC workloads but operates at far greater scale under DOE rather than state appropriation.

Emerging players

• CoreWeave: GPU-focused cloud provider offering large-scale NVIDIA-accelerated compute for AI workloads. Represents the emerging commercial/competitive threat to academic HPC centers (like OSC) as AI compute becomes commoditized via hyperscale GPU clouds.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/osc
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/ohiosupercomputer
• Facebookfacebook.com/ohiosupercomputercenter
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ohio-supercomputer-center
• Instagraminstagram.com/ohiosupercomputer
• Pinterestpinterest.com/ohiosupercomputer

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Ohio Supercomputer Center