High Performance Computing Adds Cloud with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2

Microsoft announced the availability of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 today at High Performance Computing Financial Markets Conference.

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite is the third version of Microsoft’s solution for high performance computing (HPC). Built on Windows Server® 2008 R2 64-bit technology, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite makes it easier than ever for companies to benefit from high-performance computing.

Public software vendor and open source benchmarks show that Windows HPC Server performance equals that of Linux. Recent research demonstrates that Windows HPC Server is 32 percent to 51 percent less expensive than Linux-based HPC systems over five years.

Burst HPC Workload to Cloud

Of special note to ISVs, customers will be able to burst HPC workloads from their on-premises datacenters 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.

Excel Interface to Your Data

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Suite now enables running distributed instances of Excel 2010 on a Windows HPC cluster, where each instance is running an independent recalculation or iteration of the same workbook with a different dataset.

HPC Services for Excel 2010 in Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 reduces calculation time of huge, complex spreadsheets by orders of magnitude. For example, calculation of a workbook with 1,700 records dropped from 14 hours to less than three minutes. In addition, customers can now turn spare processor cycles on Windows 7-based workstations into desktop compute clouds that expand the capacity of Windows HPC Server clusters.

Getting Started

Customers interested in evaluating Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 can visit https://www.microsoft.com/hpc.

See developer resources for Windows HPC Server.

Information about Microsoft’s Technical Computing initiative can be found online.

About Windows HPC Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC a comprehensive and integrated high-performance computing (HPC) solution at a low cost of ownership, this server offers new capabilities for powerful analysis and is ready for the toughest technical computing workloads in business, academia and government.

For more information about today’s announcement, see Microsoft Pushes Its Technical Computing Initiative Forward With Windows HPC Server 2008 R2.

Bruce D. KyleISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation