Met Office CIO discusses new £1.2bn supercomputer and its economic benefits

Charles Ewen, CIO of the Met Office, tells Computing that its new supercomputer, which will be supported by Microsoft, will bring £13.7 billion of economic benefit to the UK

The Met Office is building a new £1.2 billion supercomputer, which will bring £13.7 billion of economic benefit to the UK.

That's according to Charles Ewen, the Met Office's CIO, who spoke to Computing recently.

He explained that his organisation is building the machine because the previous supercomputer, a Cray XC40, is nearing its end of life.

"Supercomputers don't last forever. At a quantum levcel you wear them out over time, they last for five to ten years. The current machine we have is a Cray XC40, and we've worked with Cray to understand what its useful life is. We replace these machines around that timeframe. This is the 13th iteration from the start of our supercomputing journey in the late '50s."

Ewen added that the Met Office worked closely with the government to understand the costs and likely outcomes before making such a significant investment.

"Clearly it's a big investment from the UK public, so the justification is very testing. All infrastructure investments have to be justified by quantifying and enumerating the social and economic benefit. We worked with the government to generate a model of our ability to mitigate risk. What would happen if the Met Office wasn't there and we weren't able to mitigate that risk? We look at what benefits the supercomputer will bring, which is that we can say more about what's likely to happen with the climate in future. So we can quantify the economic benefit we'll bring. For this £1.2bn investment, that will benefit £13.7 billion of benefit."

Watch the full interview for more.

For more from Charles Ewen and to find out what makes him laugh, read this interview.