CIQ showcases year of transformative AI and HPC infrastructure innovation at SC25

From GPU and performance optimized Linux to federated hybrid computing platforms, CIQ delivers breakthrough solutions that make all performance-intensive computing efficient, secure and performant

RENO, Nev., Nov. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As the global supercomputing community convenes in St. Louis for SC25, CIQ, founding sponsor of Rocky Linux, the creator of Fuzzball, Ascender, and primary contributors to Apptainer (formerly Singularity) and Warewulf, is set to showcase a transformative year that redefined how organizations build, manage and secure infrastructure for HPC, AI and modern workloads.

CIQ addresses the critical gap in infrastructure software, the essential layer between AI applications and next-generation hardware, where innovation has failed to keep pace with the demands of modern workloads. The company delivers a complete infrastructure stack optimized from the kernel to cluster orchestration, providing the intense performance and proactive security that AI and HPC environments require.

Throughout 2025, CIQ delivered a steady cadence of innovations addressing the most pressing challenges facing organizations deploying performance-intensive workloads: GPU software complexity, hybrid infrastructure management, cluster deployment friction and enterprise-grade security. These solutions power many of the world's most demanding computing environments across government, financial services, life sciences and manufacturing sectors.

2025 highlights:

• Capabilities between CIQ and NVIDIA expand: The collaboration to provide NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit integration rapidly expanded to include NVIDIA DOCA OFED support across Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC) and Rocky Linux from CIQ - AI (RLC-AI). This evolution made RLC the first Linux distribution licensed to deliver the complete NVIDIA AI and networking software stack out of the box, enabling enterprises to move from installation to inference 9x faster and freeing teams to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure configuration, based on internal benchmarking. (Read more)
• Ascender Pro: CIQ's enterprise automation solution eliminates the traditional tradeoff between deployment speed and security. Built on Ansible AWX with enterprise-grade stability, Ascender Pro provides role-based access control, complete audit trails through its integrated Ledger system, and workflow orchestration that ensures security policies are enforced consistently across thousands of systems. When paired with RLC-H, organizations achieve both rapid deployment velocity and uncompromising security posture.
• Warewulf Pro: Released in August, this turnkey enterprise solution features an intuitive web interface, pre-built node images for common workloads, and production-ready packages. "Deployments that might take weeks can be completed in hours," said Jonathon Anderson, principal HPC engineer at CIQ. (Read more)
• Cloud marketplace expansion: CIQ became Azure's Endorsed Distribution provider for Rocky Linux, launched RLC-Hardened (RLC-H) and Fuzzball on AWS Marketplace, and made Rocky Linux 9.6 and RLC-H available on Google Cloud. (Read more)
• Purpose-built Linux distributions: CIQ expanded its Rocky Linux portfolio with RLC-AI, an OS engineered for AI workloads with optimized kernel configurations and confidential computing support, and RLC-H (GA August), a security-hardened distribution now available across all three major cloud marketplaces, featuring LKRG, hardened packages and a verified supply chain.
• FIPS 140-3 compliance: In April, CIQ announced that Rocky Linux 8 and Rocky Linux 9 achieved FIPS 140-3 compliance, officially listed under the NIST Modules in Process list. This certification provides organizations with validated cryptographic security for critical workloads, meeting stringent federal and enterprise security standards.
• Fuzzball Federate: Introduced in March, Fuzzball transparently unifies clusters for seamless workload orchestration across on-premises and cloud environments, with full compatibility for traditional and existing HPC systems. "CIQ's Fuzzball gives us the ability to implement and scale these pipelines for 100x the throughput in a fraction of the time," said Claire Seibold, director of software and data analytics at FYR, which uses Fuzzball to power its precision medicine platform.

For details on the above items, see the full news release library.

CIQ at SC25

At SC25, CIQ will demonstrate reference architectures combining RLC, Fuzzball, NVIDIA GPUs, and Warewulf Pro, showcasing how next-generation infrastructure delivers both security and performance without compromise. Find us at booth 736, and review the list of CIQ speaking sessions and events at SC25: https://events.ciq.com/2025/sc25/ 

About CIQ

CIQ is building the next-generation secure and performant software infrastructure stack for the AI era. Founded in 2020 by open source pioneer Gregory Kurtzer, CIQ helps organizations simplify, unify, and democratize high-performance computing and enterprise IT. CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the creator of products like Fuzzball, Warewulf, Ascender, and multiple Rocky Linux variants. The company provides scalable, open infrastructure solutions that empower innovation—from the operating system up. Rooted in a community-first philosophy, CIQ is trusted by organizations worldwide modernizing for a future defined by AI and data-intensive computing. Learn more at https://ciq.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Cristin Connelly
Cathey Communications for CIQ
[email protected]

SOURCE CIQ