Case Study: CADFEM achieves faster, cost-effective simulation and halved time-to-market with Amazon Web Services

CADFEM - Customer Case Study

CADFEM UK and Ireland, founded in 1997 and an ANSYS Channel Partner, provides computer-aided engineering (CAE) consulting, training, and high-performance computing to sectors such as renewable energy and aerospace. The company struggled to compete with larger firms that owned massive on‑premises clusters, which put CADFEM at a disadvantage when bidding for major contracts that required intense computational power.

CADFEM adopted AWS (EC2, EBS, S3) and became an AWS Channel and Advanced Consulting Partner, offering preconfigured ANSYS AMIs and a self‑service portal that lets users spin up Linux clusters on demand. The move has leveled the playing field—most customers now choose the pay‑per‑use solution—delivering dramatic results such as a 128‑core AWS cluster for OpenHydro that cut run time from 13 hours to under 1 hour, completed a study in two months instead of two years, slashed cost per run by 75%, and enabled fast regional deployment and trialing.

CADFEM

Derek Sweeney

Managing Director