Dell Technologies has become the latest supporter of the OpenCHAMI project, a consortium creating a cloud-like toolkit for provisioning and management of high-performance computing (HPC) systems.

The OpenCHAMI project was founded in 2023 to create an open-source HPC system manager that prioritizes straightforward troubleshooting. It’s already in use across several major clusters at U.S. National Laboratories such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, where it is accelerating AI research.

Now, Dell has lent its name to the project, joining Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in the big-name tech vendors backing OpenCHAMI. Dell said it plans to bring its “extensive expertise in hardware and software integration,” which it contends will be crucial for the project’s success.

Omnia, Dell’s own open-source software stack for managing compute servers, storage, and networking within complex environments, will be combined with OpenCHAMI’s software to meet the needs of modern HPC workloads.

Dell’s software, made available back in 2021, offers Ansible Playbooks developed by Dell’s HPC and AI innovation team, designed to automate the process of downloading and installing software for things like cluster management, application execution, and accelerator drivers.

Paired with OpenCHAMI’s software, Omnia will be used to provide system admins with tools to ensure high availability, along with reproducible HPC system definitions.

“Open-source projects thrive on community involvement, and Dell’s participation will help attract more contributions to OpenCHAMI,” John Lockman, a Dell distinguished engineer for AI and supercomputing, wrote in a company blog post. “This increased collaboration will accelerate the project’s development, leading to faster implementation of new features and improvements.”

Dell became a full voting member of the OpenCHAMI consortium earlier this summer following the Open Source Summit North America in Denver. In addition to adding another big-name tech vendor, the project recently joined both the Linux Foundation and the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF) to boost its open source collaboration in the HPC and AI spaces.

As well as Los Alamos National Laboratory, other research institutions supporting OpenCHAMI include the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in Berkeley, CSCS, the Swiss National Supercomputing Center, and the University of Bristol, which houses Isambard-AI, the fastest supercomputer in the U.K.

“As more organizations adopt Omnia and OpenCHAMI, we can expect to see a transformation in how HPC resources are managed and provisioned, leading to greater efficiency and productivity,” Lockman wrote.

Dell’s involvement comes after it also participated in the Cisco-led Agntcy project, which was recently donated to the Linux Foundation. The likes of Google Cloud, Oracle, and Red Hat were also involved, with the project aiming to create a de facto listing of AI agents capable of performing security-focused tasks autonomously.