Jan 21, 2011 11:56 GMT  ·  By

Cloud computing offers the kind of processing power that cannot be ignored by customers currently leveraging high-performance computing (HPC) resources. This is the premise of a new Microsoft sponsored whitepaper authored by David Chappell, from David Chappell and Associates, titled: “Windows HPC Server and Windows Azure - High-Performance Computing in the Cloud.”

The document is available free of charge via the Microsoft Download Center, offering insight into why Windows Azure and Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 are better together.

Chappell notes that Cloud computing is redefining the HPC paradigm.

“Why not take advantage of the massive data centers now available in the cloud? For example, Microsoft’s Windows Azure provides on-demand access to lots of virtual machines (VMs) and acres of cheap storage, letting you pay only for the resources you use,” he stated.

“The potential benefits for HPC are obvious. Rather than relying solely on your own on-premises cluster, using the cloud gives you access to more compute power when you need it.”

The point is that while buying new machines to expand the processing power of a HPC environment is always an option, with the generalization of Windows Azure worldwide, it might not be the only one, or the best.

This especially since some of the Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 workloads can simply be transitioned into the Cloud to Windows Azure. And in some scenarios it might in fact be more feasible for HPC customers to rely on Windows Azure than buy more server, setting up clusters, managing the new infrastructure, etc.

“While the rise of cloud computing will surely have a big impact on the HPC world, the reality is that on-premises HPC clusters aren’t going away. Instead, providing a way to combine the two approaches—cluster and cloud—makes sense.

“This is exactly what Microsoft has done with Windows HPC Server and Windows Azure, supporting all three possible combinations: applications that run entirely in an on-premises cluster, applications that run entirely in the cloud, and applications that are spread across both cluster and cloud,” Chappell added.

The inherent advantage of leveraging both a HPC platform and a Cloud platform from Microsoft is that the technologies are designed to play nice with one another.

In this regard, Windows HPC Server R2 and Windows Azure allow customers to not only make the best of their existing HPC investments, but also seamlessly scale up in the Cloud.

“This reality is why Windows HPC Server supports all three possibilities: running applications entirely in an on-premises cluster; running applications entirely in the cloud; running applications across both an on-premises cluster and the cloud,” Chappell explained.