Transforming GPU Resource Management with Temporal: From Complexity to Efficiency We recently spoke with a senior engineer at a leading technology company renowned for its GPU-powered cloud services. The engineer shared how Temporal has been a game-changer in their operations, helping the team automate critical workflows, streamline processes, and deliver faster results with fewer headaches. By deploying Temporal, they built an extensible platform for managing long-running GPU workflows in just three months, unlocking new levels of scalability and efficiency.

The Challenge: Managing Millions of Long-Running Tasks#

In this company’s cloud services division, GPUs are the backbone of high-performance computing and AI workloads. Managing thousands of these resources — health checks, updates, and repairs — is a monumental task. “We’re dealing with resources that are operational for years,” the engineer explained. “The operations we perform on them are inherently long-running and asynchronous, which makes them a perfect match for Temporal.”

Previously, these workflows were cumbersome, requiring extensive manual oversight and brittle, hard-to-maintain systems. Alternatives like state-machine-based tools didn’t provide the flexibility the team needed. “With those systems, every state has to be explicitly modeled ahead of time,” the engineer said. “Temporal, on the other hand, lets us build durable workflows that can adapt to different scenarios.”

The team didn’t just explore Temporal — they leaned into it. “I was hired specifically to bring Temporal expertise,” the engineer revealed. “Our leadership saw the value and wanted to build a solution around it.”

The Solution: A Unified Resource Management Platform#

The team’s answer was to create a Resource Management Platform powered by Temporal. Designed for extensibility, this platform could manage various types of GPU resources and operations under a single system.

“We launched the platform in just three months,” the engineer shared. “Temporal gave us the reliability and durability we needed to move quickly. Now we can manage resources at scale without worrying about retries, failures, or state management — it’s all handled for us.”

“Nexus is a game-changer for integrating different workflows seamlessly.”

The platform uses child workflows to manage tasks and is now evolving to leverage Temporal Nexus, Temporal’s new feature for extensibility. “Nexus is a game-changer,” the engineer said. “It makes it even easier to integrate different workflows seamlessly. We’re already migrating parts of our platform to use it.”

In addition to the platform, the team developed a flexible automation pool — internally dubbed the “Pirate Galley” — to handle smaller, ad-hoc tasks that fit Temporal’s capabilities. “For small use cases, we can spin up workflows in less than a sprint — just a couple of weeks,” the engineer explained. “It’s a great way to tackle automation quickly without overengineering solutions.”

A New Mindset: Durable Execution as a Developer “Superpower”#

When asked why the team chose Temporal Cloud over self-hosting, the engineer didn’t hesitate. “At our scale, we could have self-hosted,” they admitted. “But the overhead wasn’t worth it. We don’t have a massive DevOps team, and the cost of Temporal Cloud is modest compared to the developer time we’d spend maintaining it. It was a no-brainer.”

Temporal Cloud also delivers a level of scalability and reliability that would have been difficult to replicate internally. “It lets us focus on solving business problems rather than managing infrastructure,” the engineer added.

“Developing with Temporal is like starting on third base — it’s a cheat code for developers.”

Temporal hasn’t just improved the team’s workflows — it’s changed how they approach development. “Developing with Temporal is like starting on third base,” the engineer quipped. “It solves concurrency, idempotency, and retries out of the box. It’s a bit of a cheat code for developers.” This shift has unlocked space for innovation. “As a distributed systems engineer, I used to spend so much time solving foundational problems,” they said. “With Temporal, I can focus on the actual application logic. It’s faster, more reliable, and honestly, just more fun.”

The engineer believes that durable execution — Temporal’s core strength — is a true “superpower” for developers. “Once you’ve worked with Temporal, you can’t go back. It fundamentally changes the way you think about building distributed systems.”

Real Results: Faster Development, Greater Impact#

Thanks to Temporal, the team has:

Built an extensible platform in just three months. Automated long-running GPU resource management workflows. Enabled rapid development of smaller use cases in weeks. And unlocked developer time to focus on higher-value tasks. “There really isn’t an alternative to Temporal,” the engineer concluded. “For the problems we’re solving, it’s unmatched. Durable execution isn’t just a feature — it’s the foundation for building scalable, resilient systems.”

The team sees even more potential with Temporal’s new features, such as Nexus, which simplifies workflow extensibility across teams. “We’re already converting parts of our platform to use Nexus,” the engineer revealed. “It’s opening up new possibilities for us and will make our workflows even more flexible.”

This interview was conducted at Replay 2024, Temporal’s annual conference, where industry leaders gather to share insights and advancements in workflow orchestration.

Temporal empowers developers to automate complex processes and focus on what matters most — building, innovating, and delivering results. See what Temporal can do for your team with $1000 in Temporal Cloud credits for a limited time.