Production-Ready AWS Cloud Operations Environment
Designed a secure, compliance-ready AWS environment for aerospace CFD simulations, achieving 94% cost reduction and 8x faster runtime through optimized HPC instances and intelligent storage architecture.
Technologies
Aerospace CFD simulations demand infrastructure that balances raw computational power with strict security requirements. This environment was designed for defense contractor workloads requiring ITAR and DFARS compliance.
The Challenge
Build a cloud environment that reduces CFD simulation runtime from 48+ hours to under 8 hours while maintaining FIPS 140-2 encryption, comprehensive audit trails, and fault tolerance limiting data loss to 30 minutes maximum.
Key Decisions
Operating System
Amazon Linux 2023
- FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic modules for ITAR compliance
- AWS-optimized kernel with native CloudWatch and Systems Manager integration
- Zero licensing costs with 5-year support lifecycle
Compute Instance
HPC7a.48xlarge
- 96 vCPUs @ 3.7-4.0GHz optimized for tightly-coupled HPC workloads
- CFD mesh decomposition across all cores reduces iteration time from 45s to 25s
- $21 per simulation vs $384 on general-purpose instances (94% cost reduction)
Storage Architecture
Three-volume design: Root, Scratch, Checkpoint
- Root (100 GiB): OS isolation with independent snapshots for disaster recovery
- Scratch (1,000 GiB): Ephemeral solver data with 80% cost reduction vs persistent storage
- Checkpoint (500 GiB): 30-minute snapshots limiting maximum data loss on failure
Encryption Strategy
AES-256-GCM with AWS KMS Customer Managed Keys
- FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated HSMs meet DFARS 252.204-7012 requirements
- Complete CloudTrail audit logs for ITAR compliance investigations
- Automatic annual key rotation per NIST SP 800-57 guidelines
Network Configuration
Hybrid IP: Dynamic internal, Elastic IP external
- Dynamic DHCP simplifies management—security groups reference instance IDs
- Elastic IP provides persistent SSH endpoint across instance restarts
- Scalable pattern for HPC clusters with static infrastructure IPs
System Services
chronyd, sshd, SSM agent, auditd, CloudWatch agent
- chronyd: Accurate timestamps for compliance logs and distributed operations
- auditd: Security event logging for ITAR/DFARS audit trail
- CloudWatch agent: CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics collection