Customer Case Study
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center
2/4/2009
Software Tester Upgrades Environment for Enhanced Performance and Service
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center (BSTQC) runs a render farm that uses high-performance computing to help customers produce animation and special effects. The organization upgraded its render farm from the first generation of Windows® HPC to Windows HPC Server 2008, which helped increased performance by 15 percent and improved customer service as a result. BSTQC also reduced its costs due to the new system's automated monitoring capabilities.
Industry: Membership Organizations
Size: Medium, 100 employees
Country: China  China

Customer Profile
http://www.bstqc.com
The Beijing Software Testing & QA Center, based in Beijing, China, is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to professional rendering and independent software testing.
Business Situation
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center was running a 10 node HPC cluster on Linux, but was looking to upgrade to improve system performance and better meet customer needs.
Solution
BSTQC deployed Windows HPC Server 2008 onto 128 nodes, with another 112 nodes to be added in the future.
Benefit
  • 15-percent increase in performance, reducing processing time.
  • Less time spend on processing jobs has allowed for increases in customer service.
  • Ease of use brought by improvements in job scheduling and simplified processes.
  • Improved CPU and network status monitoring through use of the Heat Map feature.
  • Reduced total cost of ownership due greater automation and better monitoring.
Software
  • Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008
Quote
"We've also experienced a positive total cost of ownership. Traditionally, people think that a Windows-based system costs more overall, but we've found that it's actually the same or lower than the overall cost of our Linux environment."
Xie Hao
IT Manager
Beijing Software Testing & QA Center