Windows HPC Server 2008 goes RTM

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 23 September 2008 13:40

Business IT - Technology

According to Bill Laing, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows Server and solutions division, financial services firms are increasingly turning to HPC resources to conduct real-time and intra-day risk analysis. 

And he claimed Windows HPC Server 2008 is the way to go because Microsoft can deliver an integrated HPC solution and a productive development environment. A focus on productivity for users, developers and administrators means Microsoft is positioned to take high-performance computing mainstream, he said.

For example, Microsoft tools allow the integration of HPC with Excel and SharePoint Server.

"Windows and .NET developers are actually very common on Wall Street, and Windows HPC Server 2008 improves a developer’s productivity through integration with Visual Studio 2008, which provides a comprehensive parallel programming environment for Windows HPC Server 2008," said Microsoft's US capital markets industry solutions director Craig Saint-Amour.

"In the past, financial services firms needed very specialized developers to redesign single-threaded applications into multi-threaded codes enabled for HPC. This came at an enormous expense to firms and required highly complex and time-consuming IT projects," he explained.

"Windows HPC Server 2008 includes the ability to create new service-oriented applications that are well suited for financial firms, building upon existing .NET development skills and using familiar Visual Studio libraries."

The operating system will not be offered as a retail product, but will be available to OEMs, service providers, and customers with volume licensing agreements. Big name OEM partners include Cray, Dell, HP, IBM, and NEC.

What does IBM have to say about HPC Server 2008? See page three.