National Instruments is using Silverlight to create tools for scientists and engineers

I had the pleasure of working with the brightest of National Instruments on a Silverlight project which is published as a case study on Microsoft.com at the URL:

https://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000004889

The following are the excerpts of the case study:

On transition from a client-centric environment to a web-centric paradigm:

“Austin, Texas–based National Instruments is one of the leading providers of graphical programming tools that engineers use to measure, test, and control the performance of a range of devices. For example, an engineering firm monitoring wind turbines in the field needs a way to gauge the performance of the machinery through a number of factors, such as vibration and wind shear. Engineers working on this kind of project typically use graphical programming software on their desktop computers to create applications that aggregate and graphically display real-world data. But, this client-centric computing model does not currently provide a clear path to the Web.” 

On Silverlight selection:

“National Instruments saw an opportunity to capitalize on the increasing demand for engineering-centric programming tools to create instrumentation systems with a Web interface. Business leaders teamed with developers to search for a technology solution that supported the development of cross-platform, rich Internet applications for these scenarios.”

“The National Instruments team opted to work with Microsoft® Silverlight™ to extend its widely used virtual instrumentation software to the Web. The team chose Silverlight over competing solutions based on its design as a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in and its use of XAML and robust development tools. “We researched a lot of different technologies for this project and we ultimately selected Silverlight over other technologies such as Adobe Flash and Ajax,” says Kamran Shah. “Silverlight offered us the best overall solution because it incorporates the Microsoft technology stack, so it’s incredibly powerful and versatile.”

On the importance of reusing the existing skills:

“With Silverlight, our developers can use familiar tools, libraries, and programming concepts to provide the means for scientists and engineers to create rich Web-based and desktop applications.”  Kamran Shah, LabVIEW Research and Development Senior Group Manager, National Instruments

I hope you will like the case study and the NI’s usage of Silverlight!

Regards,

Hanu