Microsoft Launches New HPC Server

Windows HPC Server 2008 is designed to enable quicker deployment of high-performance capabilities and scalability from workstation to cluster. This is more evidence of the continued trickle-down of high-performance computing capabilities to enterprises and small-to-medium-size businesses.

More evidence of the continued trickle-down of high-performance computing capabilities to enterprises and small-to-medium-size businesses came Sept. 22 from a company not exactly well-known for HPC: Microsoft.

At the 2008 High Performance on Wall Street Conference in New York, Microsoft announced that it has released to manufacturing its newest server, Windows HPC Server 2008. The new server will be available for general distribution in about two months.

Windows HPC Server 2008, available now for evaluation download, is designed to replace Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. It is based on Windows Server 2008 and designed to simplify the deployment, administration and management of a system while ensuring interoperability with existing infrastructures.

Windows HPC Server 2008 also is optimized for rapid HPC application development through integration with Visual Studio 2008, which already provides a comprehensive parallel programming environment. The new server supports standard interfaces such as OpenMP, MPI (multiprocessor interconnect) and Web services, in addition to third-party numerical library providers, performance optimizers, compilers and debugging toolkits.

"We've seen the advanced technologies that HPC had tackled over the last couple of decades now becoming mainstream," Kyril Faenov, general manager of Microsoft's high-performance computing group, told me.

"This is driven by two factors: One, on the technology side, with the prevalence of parallelism -- multi-core [processors] -- all systems are becoming parallel. And that's something that's been a very challenging technological subject that requires a lot of non-trivial innovation to make it easy to use. Microsoft is hiring some of the luminaries of the HPC field to bring that expertise to more mainstream products."

The second driver, Faenov said, is that HPS is becoming a fundamental part of innovation in sectors such as SMB and academics, which was unheard of only a few years ago.

Windows HPC Server 2008 evaluation copies are now available for download here. Pricing for Windows HPC Server 2008 will be $475 per node. More information is available here.

Source:eweek.com

Cost-Savings Key Driver to Green IT in Small Businesses

Vittesh Kalambi, research analyst at Access Market International, says cost-savings is the key driver to small businesses becoming convinced about the positive outcome of Green IT.

While small businesses do not have similar scale as large businesses, they can still go green by choosing EnergyStar rated appliances, low power consuming electronics, blade servers and virtualization technologies, says Kalambi.

Here’s some Green IT initiatives small businesses could take:

– Choose energy-efficient PC. HP and IBM have begun to manufacture low power consuming servers and PCs which utilize roughly 66% of the power requirement of older systems.

– Use power-saving servers such as blade servers which provide the same computing power with much lower power utilization.

– Be more efficient in the use of computing resources. Thin clients, which uses half the energy of desktops, saves space, is easier to secure and could reduce costs due to lower IT management expenses.

– Use basic power management techniques on computers, which can result in substantial energy savings.

– Recycle. Paper waste can be minimized by double-sided printing, reusing single side printed sheets of paper and other methods. For e-waste such as electronic hardware, retailers such BestBuy have e-waste recycling program for consumers and all their stores have recycling centers for cell phones, batteries, PCs, TVs etc.

A Quick Look at OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0 Beta 2

OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta 2 is available in preparation for an official September release. Here are some quick first impressions of the Writer word-processor program.

While I am a die-hard Linux and OO.org user, I must admit that I have been using Microsoft Office 2007 frequently - and I like it. That is, I like its features but dislike its closed nature. After much research, I decided that the best solution for the task of writing my master’s thesis was the combination of Word 2007 and EndNote. The main driver for choosing this combination was management of scientific citations. The Word-EndNote combination has saved me tens of hours of work in this area. The other driver was cost. I was able to obtain the entire Microsoft Office 2007 suite for $37. I would never pay the ridiculous full price that Microsoft demands.

Now, with some fresh Word experience under my belt, I thought I’d give OO.org Writer 3 a look.

While I was hoping that Writer 3 would adopt a Word-like interface, with its tabbed menus, but this is not the case. Although the icons have been updated, the overall look and feel of OO.org is not radically different from its predecessor.

Nevertheless, you can now import Word 2007 documents into OO.org 3, which is critical to its continued success and relevance.

Some other new Writer features include

* The ability to view multiple pages simultaneously
* Support for ODF 1.2 and PDF/A
* Native Mac OS X support

As mentioned above, citation management is a deal-maker or breaker for me. How does Writer 3 stack up there? Unfortunately, citation management in Writer 3 remains deficient for at least three reasons. First, the database fields in the bibliographic database are incomplete and non-standard in relation to how things are done in academia today. Certainly one could spend much time customizing the database fields, but the cost-benefit calculus doesn’t make sense to me. It appears that OO.org folks just whipped up something they thought looks reasonable. Second, when you insert a bibliographic citation, neither does it appear in a format typical for a scientific journal (e.g. “(Smith et al. 2006)”), nor is it editable. Third, Writer will not create a real-time (or any) bibliography at the end of your document as EndNote and other citation-management programs do. You have to create your bibliography by hand. Thus, if I were to start my master’s thesis over today, unfortunately I would skip Writer and choose the Word 2007-EndNote combination once again.

So, is OpenOffice.org Writer 3 worth the upgrade? Given Writer 3’s new features, such as support for Microsoft Office 2007 documents, ODF 1.2 and PDF/A, as well as the ability to view multiple pages simultaneously, the answer is a certain “yes”. However, if you are looking for a quantum-leap upgrade from OO.org 2.4 – or if you need to write a master’s thesis! - this is not a ‘write home to Mom’ release. Version 3.0 is a solid, incremental upgrade from Version 2.4.

Source:linuxjournal.com

Microsoft Small Business News & Events

But when I asked him directly, Blossom surprised me by concluding that it wasn’t the consumer side of search Microsoft was going after, but the enterprise. He sees Powerset as a compliment to Microsoft’s purchase of Fast earlier this year. “Powerset offers Microsoft a new leg up in value-add search applications using semantic analysis to extract content related to a topic. It's most useful application is likely to be in enterprise search, where there are going to be many documents with a structure that would feed well into semantic analysis tools.”

Blossom thinks the open web would be a greater challenge for a semantic search tool because it involves interpreting all of the nuances of the different types of online content through a common filtering system, but he also sees potential for this technology in mobile applications using voice-activated response to natural language queries. “Whichever the application,” Blossom says, “being able to answer questions triggered by natural language queries is becoming increasingly important in content services."

But who is director market intelligence at AIIM, and recently finished a study on the effectiveness of enterprise search (described here in my EContent article AIIM Study Finds Enterprise Search Still Lacking) isn’t so sure that natural language query is really all that. “From a “pure” search experience, people can barely be bothered to enter more than 1-3 search terms – what would make us think that users are going to type in fully formed questions as a query?” He points that in fact, most search engines have trained us *not* to enter fully formed questions.

In any event, Keldsen is simply not impressed with this move. “All the acquisitions or investments (such as into Facebook) that Microsoft has made in the consumer-facing, public web search market - as interesting as the techniques that Powerset uses are (Semantic Web, where art thou?) - this is much ado about nothing. It’s one small, subtle capability that is going to take quite some time (if ever) to make a significant impact on this aspect of the MS search business.”

I’m not so sure I agree completely with Keldsen here. I think the semantic web is the next frontier. People didn’t take Web 2.0 very seriously for a long time. Social networking was for teens, but today it’s on everyone lips. I have the feeling the semantic web or Web 3.0 as it’s been called could change the way we interact with web sites, but I do agree that it’s true potential is likely well into the future.

For now, I think Microsoft was wise to be forward-thinking. I’ve written before that Microsoft has always been a company to stand back and watch, then react to trends. In this case, they are getting ahead of the curve, and even if Keldsen is right and it’s well off into the future, I think Microsoft should be applauded for taking an educated risk. After all, what have they got to lose?

Small Business Events

What is a Microsoft Connections Live Event?

Microsoft Connections live events are designed to provide you with an opportunity to learn more about what Microsoft and its partners have to offer small business owners. At a Microsoft Connections live event, you can:

• Interact with a Microsoft Small Business Solutions adviser to learn more about how technology can help you and your small business
• See live demonstrations of the latest Microsoft solutions for small business owners
• Understand how technology can have an impact on how your business runs
• Learn from the experiences of other small business owners in attendance
• Meet representatives of local Small Business Specialist Partners who can work with you to implement the technologies you see

Who Should Attend?

Microsoft Connections events can prove to be a valuable investment of your time if you:

• Are a small business owner
• Make technology purchasing decisions at the small business where you work
• Are starting up your own small business

What to Expect?

Microsoft Connections events begin at 8am and finish at 12pm. During our free event we generally try to expose you to one or two new technologies, spending the rest of the time digging deeper into products or services that have been available for some time and are likely to already be a part of your technology landscape. You'll walk away with some new products to consider, some tips and tricks you can implement today and resources that can help you continue your research.

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