- More porn sneaks onto the iPhone
- 'Swatting' case shows need to ban caller-ID spoofing
- Why the iPhone can't be "killed"
- Nortel enterprise chief wants to bring back Bay
- US sets final emergency responder wireless pilot
Grid computing software vendor Platform Computing announced support for Microsoft 's upcoming cluster server software Tuesday. The two companies are also developing an open scheduling standard, according to the head of Platform. Additionally, Platform is expanding its existing relationships with both IBM and HP.
Platform is integrating its workload scheduling software LSF so it will be available when Microsoft's Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 ships in the first half of 2006, according to Songnian Zhou, Platform's CEO, chairman and co-founder. Platform made the announcement at the Supercomputing conference (SC05) taking place in Seattle through Friday.
Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 brings together the Compute Cluster Edition version of Microsoft's Windows operating system and the vendor's Compute Cluster Pack of interfaces, utilities and management software. Currently in beta testing, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 represents a major move by the software giant into the high performance computing market.
Platform and Microsoft have been working together for more than a year and the integration between their two products will be the first time the companies will "go out to market [together] publicly," Zhou said in a phone interview Monday. The integration will enable bi-directional job forwarding so that users can offload jobs to where there's optimal capacity, either on the computing cluster or in the data center, he added.
The vendors are also collaborating on an open standard for Web services job scheduling, according to Zhou. The standard is related to the integration of LSF and Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and the plan is to involve other vendors in the standard's creation, he said. "It's not just a proprietary approach," Zhou added. "This is one of the very few times when Microsoft is coming out of bat and working with a third party to drive a standard."
At the opposite end of the computing scale from Microsoft's low-level clustering, Platform is expanding its relationship with IBM to include LSF integration with Big Blue's eServer Blue Gene cluster supercomputers, according to Zhou. IBM and Platform have been partners for about ten years, but have worked closer together over the past three years as Big Blue has focused more on a number of grid computing initiatives, he said. The integration of Blue Gene and LSF should be finished in the first quarter of next year, Zhou added.
Partner Content
Explore the Ultrium Edge
The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.
Find Out More
Disk and Tape Square Off
Discover what disk and tape really cost and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization
Download this White Paper
Don't Fall for the Myths
The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.
Review this information
information examination
An examination of information security issues, methods and securing data with LTO-4 tape drive encryption
Read this analysis
Comment