In the works for two and a half years, according to one person on the team, Microsoft has brought out a new version of HPC with the familiar Windows front end, so Super Power (Kryptonite not included in the base price) is not only available but usable.

The company wheeled out some impressive executives for this, considering that from Redmond, New York is on the wrong coast.

Bill Laing, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Server and Solutions Division, said financial services firms are turning to HPC for real-time and intra-day risk analysis. Current markets should help the Microsoft sales team in their efforts – after all, turnout for this event was high and the badges included Lehman and Merrill. Not sure anyone spotted Bear Stearns. Risk, not soo surprisingly, was a hot topic.

“Companies have to be more efficient than ever with IT resources, but need to maintain their position in a competitive marketplace,” said Laing. “They require HPC solutions that deploy quickly, integrate in a heterogeneous environment and scale from workstation to cluster. The launch of Windows HPC Server 2008 is just another step in our vision to drive HPC mainstream.”

One HPC partner said Microsoft made its real break into HPC two years ago when it dropped the Windows HPC price to $450 or so, about a third of the cost of a standalone Windows server license. And in bulk enterprise purchases the HPC Server costs come down even more, he said. But then, when you’re competing against Linux – free — you have to get flexible on pricing.

So Microsoft is pushing fast deployment, easy integration with other applications and a great platform for developers to use tools like Excel and SharePoint through a new SOA architecture in its HPC environment.

Anyway, back to reality, if only briefly. Microsoft says a bunch of companies in vertical industries participated including Lloyds TSB – a pioneer in innovation if you recall my story a few months ago in Banking Technology.

Also, Morgan Stanley came through for Microsoft. Whew, close call. Awful to have a reference account that doesn’t exist any more. But the bank came through as a reference for a supplier, which is pretty unusual.

As the release says: Morgan Stanley, a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services, has been working closely with Microsoft on the development of Windows HPC Server 2008, says the announcement.

“At Morgan Stanley, we create and develop models and systems designed to enhance our securities and investment banking businesses,” said Jay Dweck, global head of strategies and technology for the Institutional Securities Group (ISG) at Morgan Stanley. In this capacity, Dweck runs Morgan Stanley Innovative Data, Environments, Analytics & Systems (IDEAS). “We are closely evaluating Microsoft’s Windows HPC Server 2008 to provide Morgan Stanley with the ability to maintain our competitive edge.”

On the partner side, Microsoft came up with an impressive, and occasionally counterintuitive list.
It has been working with more than 60 partners, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Cray Inc., Dawning Technologies Inc., Dell Inc., HP, IBM Corp., Intel Corporation, transtec AG., Verari Systems Inc., Viglen Ltd. and VXTECH, to continue to drive high-performance computing farther into the mainstream.

“We believe that Windows HPC Server 2008 and IBM System x hardware will significantly expand the high-performance computing market,” said Dave Jursik, vice president of HPC Sales for IBM. “The combination of Microsoft’s proven software with IBM’s unique supercomputing tools and solutions gives clients industry-leading productivity and extreme, high-end performance.”

IBM? What? The guys who have been promoting Java as the Microsoft killer? And there was an IBM rep at the Microsoft dinner at the 21 Club after the show, sitting across from HP’s trading guru Ann Ambrose.

Curious.

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