Microsoft has released Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. Providing a comprehensive and integrated HPC solution at a low cost of ownership, this OS offers new capabilities for powerful analysis and is ready for the toughest technical computing workloads in business, academia and government.
'This release of Windows HPC server is a key step in our long-term goal to make the power of technical computing accessible to a broader set of customers, with capabilities across the desktop, servers and the cloud,' said Bill Hilf, general manager of Microsoft Technical Computing Group. 'Customers in all industries can use Windows HPC Server as a foundation for building and running simulations that model the world around us, speeding discovery and helping to make better decisions.'
Customers rely on Windows HPC Server clusters to run a wide variety of mission-critical applications, from simulating financial markets to fighting disease to building next-generation vehicles. Their feedback has driven important advancements in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. With Windows HPC Server, customers have an end-to-end HPC platform and do not need to spend additional time and money to piece together multiple technologies. It provides a streamlined experience for administrators and users because it is interoperable with the Microsoft IT infrastructure many customers have invested in and use today, such as Active Directory, SharePoint Server, Microsoft System Centre and Microsoft Office. Microsoft is marketing Windows HPC Server as a cost-effective option, citing recent research that demonstrates that Windows HPC Server is 32 per cent to 51 per cent less expensive than Linux-based HPC systems over five years.
The cloud is a key pillar of Microsoft’s Technical Computing initiative. Microsoft recently demonstrated how customers will be able to burst HPC workloads from their on-premises data centres to the cloud for elastic, just-in-time processing power. In the near future, the company will release an update to Windows HPC Server that allows customers to provision and manage HPC nodes in Windows Azure from within on-premises server clusters.
Microsoft also recently highlighted another tenet of its Technical Computing initiative: Simplifying the development of HPC applications for the new generation of distributed, or parallel, computing resources on client systems, server clusters and in the cloud. With Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, and partners such as Intel Corporation and Nvidia, Microsoft provides an integrated parallel computing platform upon which developers can efficiently design, test and optimise parallel code for deployment on client, cluster or cloud computing resources.
