Customer Case Study
INRA
4/2/2009
Researchers Expect to Save a Year of Development with Move to Windows HPC
The French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) wanted to expand its use of high-performance computing (HPC) to study intestinal illness and obesity, but it needed technology that would be easy for multiple laboratories to use. INRA moved away from its Linux system and instead deployed Windows® HPC Server 2008, which will reduce research application development time by one year and heighten researcher productivity.
Industry: Life Sciences Industry
Size: Large, 7000 employees
Country: France  France

Customer Profile
http://www.international.inra.fr/
The Paris, France–based National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), a mission-oriented institution, is one of the foremost research institutes for agriculture, food, and the environment.
Business Situation
Because their computational requirements were so complex, the INRA needed to work with several different laboratories, including some outside of France. Doing so required the INRA to implement technology that was more accessible.
Solution
The INRA decided to move away from the open source environment and implemented the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system. The institution also used the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 development system to optimize it for HPC.
Benefit
  • Fast, easy deployment
  • Better Productivity
  • Improved management
Software
  • Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008
Quote
"Until now, we've used a proprietary system that has let us acquire and process genome data under Linux. But from now on, we'll use Windows HPC Server 2008."
Jean-Michel Batto, IT and Data Processing Manager
Microbial Genetics Unit Laboratory, National INRA