IBM (www.ibm.com) recently announced a new focus on the Departmental/Workgroup clusters market. For engineers, scientists and IT professionals who use high-performance computing (HPC) applications, IBM provides departmental and workgroup clusters. Available for Windows Computer Cluster Server 2003, these clusters capitalize on IBM’s extensive engineering, testing and deep-clustering experience, utilizing IBM System x™ rack-optimized or IBM BladeCenter® servers for extraordinary performance and reliability.

According to Stuart Alexander, IBM’s clusters worldwide marketing manager, departmental and workgroup clusters, which are smaller, more manageable and allow for more affordable HPC clustering solutions, bring more compute power closer to users for greater productivity.

WFS: How will your new ‘solutions’ focus, providing pre-engineered, integrated clustering solutions across a range of industries and workloads, benefit financial services firms?

SA: We wanted to isolate our clients from undue complexity. IBM has tremendous experience in HPC and in fielding clusters. We’re always striving to apply that experience to better provide powerful, efficient, well-supported solutions to real-world problems. Frankly, clients buy technology to work more efficiently, not to engage in engineering exercises.

WFS: And they expect first-rate service?

SA: Yes. We also know that firms want solutions that have been engineered, well tested and properly integrated. Piecemeal solutions don’t cut it anymore. Working with our business partners, we provide exactly the integrated solutions our clients seek. We’ve been working closely with leading software vendors to ensure that when we announce a particular solution offering, our clients can have full confidence that the technical legwork’s been done in advance, that what they’re buying is designed for their particular workload.

WFS: How do you see Microsoft’s Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 working for smaller clustering environments in firms heavily leveraging Microsoft technology? Is WCCS a ‘game changer’ in fueling the already rapid growth in the departmental clusters space?

SA: As you know, Linux is a superb answer for many users’ needs, but not for all. However, Microsoft’s entree into HPC clustering with the release of WCCS was very exciting to us.

Microsoft software is ubiquitous, especially in the financial world. Being able to integrate our HPC clusters into Microsoft-centric environments so seamlessly was very attractive to our clients and us. And with its ability to integrate so smoothly into clients’ Microsoft environments, we absolutely see CCS as a game changer, especially in the ‘departmental cluster’ space.

WFS: How so?

SA: Microsoft can be used on large cluster implementations, but CCS, in particular, is a fantastic environment for the 64-nodes-and-under marketplace. For various reasons, we’re seeing growth in smaller clusters with very ‘rich’ server configurations, watching them move out of the backrooms, closer to actual users.

WFS: Some industry watchers say that with the release of Excel Server 2007, the professional or ‘power’ Excel user finally has what he or she has been seeking for years. Do you agree?

SA: Absolutely. Clusters are often associated with more complex, exotic workloads. However, we believe that Excel Server 2007 can alter that perception more than any other product we’ve seen to date. HPC clusters crunch numbers, running ‘modelers’ or ‘solvers.’ In the financial world, the default ‘modeler’ or ‘solver’ of choice has long been Excel. The professional Excel user has always been limited, though. They could run their spreadsheets on powerful workstations but this was still limiting in terms of sheer compute power and size of their spreadsheets. With this new Excel environment, professional ‘power’ Excel users can now utilize true HPC technology in new, expanded ways. Whether they seek to off-load calculations to a nearby Microsoft cluster to take advantage of that compute muscle, or run the Excel spreadsheet on that cluster for the compute power and the ability to run massive spreadsheets, we have a solution for them.

We often point out that clusters are really tools for reducing decision time. We believe that Microsoft clusters running Excel can help them with just that. While not overly sophisticated or exotic, they are a powerful tool for doing real day-to-day work.

WFS: How closely is IBM working with Microsoft and other partners to attack this demand and provide Excel users with HPC technology and compute power in ways previously unavailable?

SA: Kirkland, Washington, lab staff are working with Microsoft developers in HPC development and Excel teams. Like our other industry solutions, we’re engineering solution stacks to address financial services, identifying the right mix of hardware and software to field robust, yet straightforward, integrated solutions. We’re also working closely with our own IBM BladeCenter team to design strong solutions. Other partners such as Platform Computing contribute to these efforts.

We pride ourselves on providing best-of-breed technologies and these solutions for the power Excel user community are no exception.

WFS: Let’s turn to IBM’s BladeCenter systems. How do they stack up as a platform-of-choice for Microsoft WCCS-based clusters running Excel Server 2007?

SA: Our Blades offerings are so powerful, easy to manage, efficient in terms of power and cooling, easy to scale and far more secure, making them ideal cluster nodes. The first thing that strikes you about a Blades-based cluster is how ‘clean’ they are. The lack of ‘cable clutter’ alone is amazing. Simple to expand, adding more compute capability is mainly a matter of slipping in more blades and off you go.

WFS: IBM’s stated that its integrated, fully supported solution stacks represent the best value for clients. How is this Blades/WCCS/Excel solution from IBM and Microsoft indicative of your significant joint design, benchmarking, testing and marketing/sales efforts in addressing financial services community needs?

SA: It illustrates our relationship beautifully. We’re playing to Microsoft’s strength in financial services as a technology provider and we’re playing to our strengths in HPC clustering technology and expertise. That this solution is based on a Microsoft application, Excel, makes it easier. Our companies’ close relationship made engineering this solution a smooth process. Plus, clients like seeing the two biggest names in the business work together as we have, providing solutions. There’s a lot of security in that.

WFS: Is this solution just the tip of a new, very large iceberg?

SA: In business, you find a need, fill it and we’re both doing just that. We see this solution offering around Excel as just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll continue to work closely with Microsoft, identifying needs we can address together for the financial community.

As our financial sector clients’ needs for more compute power grows, as the need for well-engineered solutions increases, as clients seek new ways to accomplish their work with greater efficiency and in new, compelling ways, we’ll both be there. Providing HPC solutions really means teaming with technology providers like Microsoft as well as our clients who need to trust their technology providers and the system solutions they purchase.

WFS: Then, it’s an exciting time to be in HPC?

SA: It’s even more exciting when you’re in the midst of it, collaborating with Microsoft….