14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft opened a new front for the Windows - Linux face-off in the high-performance computing, with Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 going against open source products. But when it comes down to high-performance computing, Microsoft indicated that the price is not the most relevant standard in recommending a solution designed to supplement computational power. Instead performance has been revealed as the main purchase factor, via a Microsoft-sponsored survey made available at the 2007 Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Technology Management Conference & Exhibit. The key finding of the study is that high-performance computing environments are rapidly evolving in an effort to keep up the pace with customer demand.
The Microsoft High-Performance Computing Capital Markets Survey 2007 conducted by GfK Custom Research North America, represented a chance for the Redmond Company to bring Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 into the spotlight. "High-performance computing is a critical success factor for capital markets firms to expand their businesses, and we're seeing a real investment in innovative software to make that happen," said Craig Saint-Amour, director of capital markets solutions in the U.S. Financial Services Group at Microsoft. "This research confirms what we've been witnessing in the market - that capital markets firms remain on the cutting edge, and that the dot-com bust of the early 2000s has now turned into a period of reinvestment for firms seeking technologies to help them grow."
With no less than 78% of respondents looking to grow their high-performance computing capacity in the upcoming 18 months, Microsoft's HPC edition of Windows Server 2003 is a viable alternative. And Microsoft's plans for high-performance computing are not modest in the least. The Redmond Company is looking to make its technology mainstream, and to dislocate Linux from a market dominant position.
"We have optimized our approach to allow integration at the tools, infrastructure, and business process levels. And the most advanced and widely used development environment on the market - .NET - is also the development environment of choice for HPC solutions. (...) New functionality can be developed, tested, and deployed with the same great software engineering tools that other Windows applications enjoy and that client's programmers already know how to use," explained Saint-Amour.