About DUG | Company History

About DUG

DUG is an ASX-listed technology company, headquartered in Australia, that is built on a strong foundation of applied science and a history of converting research into practical, real-world solutions. DUG delivers tailored geoscience services and software, reliable cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC), and novel immersion-cooling systems, all backed by bespoke support.

DUG provides a comprehensive geoscience offering backed by over two decades of experience and a focus on R&D. DUG maximises the value of seismic data enabling clients to minimise risk and make more-informed decisions. DUG recently released its latest breakthrough technology — elastic multi-parameter FWI imaging — reaffirming its position at the forefront of geoscientific innovation.

DUG’s proprietary immersion-cooling technology has been refined through production use, at scale, for over a decade. It is sold globally as part of an exclusive licence agreement and is the cornerstone of DUG’s modular, edge-computing solution.

DUG is a global company with offices in Perth, London, Houston, Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi, supporting a diverse industrial client-base. DUG designs, owns, and operates a network of some of the largest supercomputers on Earth. The company continues to invest and innovate, working towards a climate-positive future.

Where it all began

Our company, originally named DownUnder GeoSolutions, was incorporated by co-founders, Matthew Lamont and Troy Thompson, in Perth, Western Australia in 2003 to provide high-performance compute solutions for scientific data analysis. Matt and Troy built our first office themselves – a shed in Matt’s backyard. Our DUG service business grew rapidly, with a focus on the international market from the outset. In the early days, Troy worked on quantitative interpretation workflows while Matt concentrated on developing a processing and imaging system for the resources sector. The focus was not only on functionality, but on integration within an interactive interpretation system. This culminated in our DUG Insight software suite, which due to client demand, was released commercially as an interpretation package in 2009.

Our Founders

Our founders have a wealth of academic and practical experience. They lead a team of equally talented professionals.

Dr Matthew Lamont is founding partner and Managing Director. Matthew holds a PhD in geophysics from Curtin University of Technology where he is an adjunct Associate Professor. Prior to founding DUG, Matt held senior technical positions at Woodside in Perth and BHP Billiton in Houston. Matt sets the company’s strategic direction and remains intimately involved in R&D and DUG HPC Cloud. Dr Troy Thompson is a founding partner, also holding a PhD in geophysics from Curtin University.

DUG today

Our company has grown from the back shed to having five major international offices in Perth, London, Houston, Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi. We continue to invest in R&D and many of our key technologies are patented or are the subject of patent pending applications. We design, build, own and run some of the most powerful and greenest supercomputers on Earth.

In 2019 we launched our fully-integrated DUG HPC Cloud platform which has enabled us to offer high-performance computing as a service (HPCaaS), scientific data analysis services, and software solutions to a range of scientific sectors outside the resources industry. In that year we also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:DUG).

In 2014 we were honoured with the Cecil Green Enterprise Award from SEG in recognition of the risk and innovation that is part and parcel of the DUG story.

In 2019 we were awarded winner of the Enterprise Data Centre Design Award from Data Centre Dynamics. This award recognises innovation in data centre design.

In 2023 we secured A$5 million from the WA Government to build our Geraldton HPC Campus, which at capacity will be home to one of the largest HPC installations in the world.