Lokad is a software development company that delivers sales, demand, and call volume forecasts for more than 300 customers—from one-person eCommerce companies to multinational retailers. To improve its forecasting capabilities, the company developed advanced forecasting tools and models. However, the more powerful forecasting models required significantly more computing resources than the company had available. Lokad decided to implement its software-plus-services forecasting application on the Windows Azure™ platform—a quick, efficient process. As a result, Lokad reduced IT maintenance costs compared to traditional approaches, delivered more powerful and accurate forecasts to its customers, and improved its ability to expand into new markets.

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.

EURO/CFD, which provides digital simulation of fluid mechanics and heat transfer, recently expanded its computing infrastructure and upgraded to the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system for its 37-node cluster. EURO/CFD can now launch simulations on 20 server computers simultaneously. With the resulting 20-percent increase in computation speed, EURO/CFD has gained a competitive edge by delivering detailed, accurate information for customers.

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.

Stork Thermeq, a provider of products and services for industrial water-steam systems, used a Red Hat Linux high-performance computing (HPC) system to support its research. But the company found that the system took considerable expertise to run and maintain, pulling researchers away from their work, and would have required outside consultants to expand and maintain the system’s structure. The company migrated to the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system because it provided greater scalability and easier management. Stork Thermeq also found that the system delivers greater cluster efficiency and flexibility because of the integrated Job Scheduler and because it performs 30 percent faster per node than the company’s previous Linux system. Due to the accelerated performance, Stork Thermeq researchers can run more compute jobs and gain deeper insight for improved products and services.

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.

PEAB is a leading Swedish construction and civil engineering firm serving the Nordic region. To keep up with rapid business growth, PEAB needed to accelerate server deployment and keep critical applications running at all times. The firm deployed the Windows Server® 2008 Datacenter operating system with the Hyper-V™ technology to take advantage of server virtualization. PEAB uses Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to create and manage virtual machines. By augmenting physical servers with virtual machines, PEAB has reduced server deployment time by 87 percent and can respond more nimbly to business needs. Because failover clustering is easy and cost-effective with Hyper-V, PEAB can ensure high availability for more applications. Using the Microsoft software, PEAB expects to trim hardware purchases by 40 servers annually and staff management time by 280 hours annually.

Glasgow Caledonian University has provided high performance computing (HPC) to researchers for more than 15 years. During this time, interest in computer simulation has expanded into disciplines that did not previously use HPC. To make these services more accessible and easier for everyone to use, the university hired HPC specialist Viglen to help implement Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003. Now researchers can get faster results without needing additional programming skills.

R Systems provides flexible high-performance computing (HPC) resources for academic researchers and commercial organizations. The company offers traditional Linux clusters as well as clusters that run on the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system. By making Windows HPC Server available, R Systems increases productivity for its customers by using the best operating system for their particular research applications.