Taking its responsibility to students, faculty, and staff seriously, Sacred Heart University wanted a highly effective emergency response plan—one that could be updated at any time, with information always available to first responders and other authorized users. For this lifesaving function, the university built a Web site based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. The result is more detailed, up-to-date plans and better interagency coordination.

When researchers at Rutgers wanted to explore massive computing scenarios with real-world significance for fields such as financial services and pharmaceuticals, they turned to Windows® HPC Server 2008. In one research project, the software proved at least 30 percent faster than Linux. The Windows HPC Server cluster was deployed in one day and works like the Windows operating system with which users and administrators are already familiar.

The High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) provides computing resources to internal and external research and industry partners. The institute uses diskless boot technology for all of its 700 compute nodes to implement a compute cluster with Windows® HPC Server 2008. HLRS has found that using diskless boot technology in combination with the latest cluster technology leads to significant savings, thanks to the high energy efficiency.

The Department of Physics at the University of Bologna needed to increase its computation speed for complex tomographic analysis of large works of art. After successful testing, it now conducts its calculations on a cluster that runs the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system. Doing so made it possible for university researchers to avoid rewriting code, reduce calculation times from 20 days to 6 hours, and expand into new areas of research.

Swansea Metropolitan University (SMU) has gained international fame for excellence in research into cancer by its Applied Design and Engineering Faculty. Scientists needed a fast high-performance computing (HPC) tool to support clinicians treating patients with oesophageal cancer. They upgraded to Windows Server® 2008 with the Microsoft Message Passing Interface (MS MPI) for parallel testing on a single workstation to support the non-invasive treatment.

The University of Southampton in the U.K. houses the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) for Computational Engineering. The centre undertakes aerodynamic research and design using a range of advanced Rolls-Royce structural and fluid flow prediction methods. To operate the increasingly complex computational needs of this work—currently the Spitfire cluster has around 650 central processing unit (CPU) cores—the centre adopted Windows® HPC Server 2008.

The Makuhari International School, located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, is a school designed to give children a flexible and creative learning environment. Because the school views technology as being critical to its overall mission, it sought to find a new solution that would give instructors more flexibility and improve administrative efficiency. In April 2009, the school implemented technological elements of the Microsoft® Learning Gateway framework, including Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Makuhari International School can now give its instructors more flexible teaching capabilities and enhanced security. The school also has technology that it can build on to further enhance its learning capabilities.

Melbourne Business School needed to improve information management regarding its prospective and current students, alumni, donors, guest lecturers, and other constituents with whom the school interacts. Working with Oakton, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, the school turned to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and its underlying development platform, xRM, to accelerate the creation of integrated solutions that track communications and automate workflow processes. Consolidating data sources and automating processes frees school staff to cultivate closer relationships with constituents, which ultimately contributes to increased revenue, overall business agility, and the school’s reputation for progressive, global leadership.

The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) had an outdated e-mail system for students, which was costly to administer due to high maintenance and support demands. The capacity of individual mailboxes was limited, negatively impacting the ability to send and receive attachments and store messages. The university needed to find a new way to provide e-mail to students. As a large educational institution with a strong sense of national identity, it was important for all university services—including e-mail—to retain the name NUI Galway. Microsoft® e-mail service Live@edu met and exceeded all the university’s requirements. Its industry-leading solution has saved the university money and helped maintain a sense of community on and off campus.

The mission of one of the top public universities in the United States is to provide the best possible educational experience for its students through excellence in teaching, research and creative activity, and service to the state and society. As a part of that mission, the school’s IT team strives to offer students, faculty, and staff a secure and reliable communication solution that enhances the everyday activities that comprise university life. To improve e-mail capabilities for faculty and students, the university deployed a pilot of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010. With this upgrade, the university will be able to benefit from increased performance and redundancy, reduced storage and backup costs, reduced compliance costs, and the ability to grow the communications network as the university population demands it.