SGI

Leading HPC Vendor Eases Adoption for Customers, with New Windows-Based Offerings

For SGI, a leading high-performance computing (HPC) vendor, extending its server offerings to support the Windows® operating system meant being able to satisfy a broader range of customers. SGI now offers Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 as an alternative to Linux, making it easier for customers who are familiar with the Windows environment to adopt HPC. The Windows-based offering is helping SGI reach new markets, and Microsoft has gained an OEM partner with the deep technical expertise needed to ensure that customers who choose Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 have an optimal experience. Customers benefit from solutions that are easy to use, that integrate well with their existing IT infrastructures, and that offer broad application support and a familiar development environment—all running on industry-leading hardware from one of the world’s premier HPC vendors.

 

Situation

California-based SGI is a global leader in high-performance computing (HPC), with deep expertise in building, installing, tuning, and managing HPC systems. The company offers a broad range of server, storage, and visualization solutions, along with industry-leading professional services to help customers solve challenges in areas such as drug research, building safer automobiles and airplanes, studying global climate change, and managing and storing large amounts of data.

For the past few years, SGI solutions have supported only Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, which limited the company’s ability to expand into new markets—and to meet the needs of some existing customers. “The HPC industry is in a period of rapid change, in that HPC capabilities that used to be too costly for most companies are now within their reach,” says Beverly Bernard, Product Manager at SGI. “This presents a significant incremental market for SGI, but we need to offer a solution that’s easy for those customers to adopt. Many companies see value from HPC, but they have little to no experience with Linux—and we don’t want to discourage them by asking them to work with unfamiliar technology. Rather, we need to provide a way for them to advance their theories and research using what they already know.”

Solution

To meet a broader range of customer needs, SGI decided to offer Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 as an alternative to Linux, providing customers who are already familiar with Microsoft® software with a way to more easily implement HPC. “SGI is focused on reducing complexity for customers, and Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 was designed for ease of use,” says Bernard. “By working together, SGI and Microsoft effectively meet customer needs in the rapidly growing enterprise market segment—and enable customers to innovate across a broader range of challenges.”

We’re already seeing all kinds of opportunities, including many in geographies that we didn’t expect, and the size of the sales funnel is increasing every month. Beverly Bernard Product Manager, SGI

Under the new relationship, SGI joins Dell, HP, and IBM as a top-tier OEM for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. SGI and Microsoft sales, marketing, and engineering teams are already working together on a broad range of activities, including technical collaboration; application benchmarking; training of SGI sales, engineering, and support personnel; and joint sales efforts. Says Carol Ann Hoag, Business Development Manager at Microsoft: “Employees across all of SGI have shown a great willingness to work with us. The relationship has developed quickly over the last year, and our respective teams are now collaborating closely in all regards.”

Flexible Configuration Options

SGI currently offers the Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 operating system preinstalled on its SGI® Altix® XE server computers, which are based on dual-core or quad-core Intel Xeon processors. SGI Altix XE servers have advanced features such as a super-fast 1600-megahertz front-side bus, 64 megabytes (MB) of memory per compute node, and an ultra-dense architecture that packs up to two eight-core compute nodes into a slim 1U form factor. (The SGI Altix XE310 and SGI Altix XE320 servers are designed to function as compute nodes, whereas the SGI Altix XE250 and XE240 servers are designed to function as either head nodes or compute nodes.)

To provide increased flexibility, SGI offers SGI Altix XE compute nodes in a dual-boot configuration, in which both Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and Linux are preinstalled on separate hard disk drive partitions. (Dedicated, operating system–specific head nodes are still required.) Customers can selectively boot some or all of the compute nodes to either operating system, and can dedicate an entire cluster to either environment or simultaneously run applications under both environments.

“The request for dual-boot capability came from customers who desired to use their clusters more efficiently,” says Jacque Powers, Product Marketing Manager for SGI Altix XE and SGI Altix ICE systems at SGI. “When the application load changes, they can change the mix of compute nodes simply by rebooting the nodes—for example, to support Windows users during the day and run batch processes on Linux at night. Regardless of which configuration is ordered, all clusters are prebuilt at the factory, so customers can simply ‘power-up and go.’”

Comprehensive Services, Support, and Other Resources

Along with selling server computers running Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, SGI is making significant investments in internal training to ensure that its staff of professionals can optimally support the platform. “When we polled our support engineers, we were surprised to find that many were already Microsoft-certified,” says Bernard. “Because of the ease of use of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and our existing expertise in HPC systems, we can ship complete solutions that customers know will work—and which they can have up and running in just a few hours.”

To help customers make informed purchasing decisions, SGI has produced a white paper that discusses Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 running on SGI Altix XE servers, which is available on the SGI Web site. SGI and Microsoft have also invested in the independent benchmarking of key applications for computational structural mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, reservoir simulation, rendering, and scientific research. “We benchmarked Ansys, Abaqus, Eclipse, Fluent, LS-DYNA, Mathematica, mental ray, and Star-CD,” says Bernard. “Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 displayed scalability comparable to Linux on a one-gigabit Ethernet cluster with up to 16 cores.”

Strong Market Acceptance and Continued Momentum

SGI is already one of the leading OEMs for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, participating in all market segments worldwide. The company began offering the new option to customers in April 2007, closing its first sale that same month. “We’re already seeing all kinds of opportunities, including many in geographies that we didn’t expect, and the size of the sales funnel is increasing every month,” says Bernard. “Potential deals are currently in the pipeline for most market segments, including defense, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, media and entertainment, automotive and heavy industry, aerospace, and university research.”

With the initial work required to get the OEM relationship off the ground completed, and sales starting to close, SGI and Microsoft are now working together to offer Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, on SGI Altix XE systems, as well as on the new SGI Altix ICE systems that were introduced in mid-2007.

Benefits

SGI’s new OEM relationship with Microsoft is proving beneficial to both companies. SGI now offers an easy-to-adopt HPC environment to customers who are already used to Microsoft software, while Microsoft gains a partner with deep HPC expertise. Customers will benefit from HPC solutions that are simple to deploy, operate, and integrate with existing infrastructure and tools—all running on industry-leading hardware and supported by one of the world’s premier HPC vendors.

Many companies see value from HPC, but they have little to no experience with Linux… We need to provide a way for them to advance their theories and research using what they already know. Beverly Bernard Product Manager, SGI

“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship in that we’re both focused on making HPC more accessible to the same markets,” says Bernard. “For customers who are already familiar with Windows but to whom HPC is new, a solution running on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 that’s supported by SGI’s years of expertise makes a lot of sense.”

Increased Sales Opportunities for SGI

SGI now can offer a comfortable and familiar HPC environment to users of Microsoft software, which will help the company increase its customer base and market share. “In looking at where we can realize incremental revenues, the opportunity is in the enterprise and government markets, where Windows software is broadly used,” says Bernard. “Now we have a solution for scientists and engineers who work on Windows-based workstations but need the capabilities of HPC, and can offer that solution with the full strength of Microsoft behind us.”

Being able to offer solutions based on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is generating new sales opportunities with established SGI customers as well. “Many existing customers are delighted to hear that we now offer Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003,” says Bernard. “They often have a heterogeneous environment, which almost always includes Windows, and are interested in anything that will make their lives easier.”

An Influential OEM Partner for Microsoft

To Microsoft, the OEM relationship with SGI provides an influential new partner in the HPC space—one with the deep technical expertise needed to ensure that customers who choose Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 will have an optimal experience.
 
“SGI’s entire focus is HPC, and they have strong relationships in areas that Microsoft is only starting to develop,” says Hoag. “Customers who have done any research into HPC know that solutions from SGI work and work well, which will help Microsoft both to promote Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and ensure that its users have the desired positive experience.”

Many Advantages for Customers

For customers who are already familiar with the Windows software environment, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 running on SGI Altix XE clusters will accelerate time-to-insight by providing an HPC solution that offers ease of use, strong integration with existing IT infrastructures, broad application support, and a familiar development environment. By working with SGI, customers can make the most of those capabilities, accelerating deployment schedules and ensuring that their solutions are supported by a vendor whose sole focus is HPC.

“SGI is unique among all Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 OEMs in that HPC is its only focus,” says Hoag. “Because SGI has such deep expertise in building, installing, tuning, and managing HPC systems, customers that choose an SGI solution based on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 stand to benefit from unparalleled ease of use complemented by industry-leading hardware, knowledge, expertise, and services.”

 
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