For scientists who want computing power without complex IT administration, Windows CCS delivers HPC capabilities in an easy to manage, easy to deploy, familiar operating environment.
Because informatics problems are data-intensive and require high computational power, many research groups want a cost-effective and easy to manage, high-performance computing (HPC) environment. Windows® Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003 is easy to deploy, easy to customize and easy to scale.
That’s why the BioTeam, a vendor-agnostic informatics solutions consultancy in the life sciences industry, ported its iNquiry software to the Windows CCS platform. iNquiry allows for the rapid deployment of a ready-to-use cluster and Web portal optimized for use in life science settings. It’s preconfigured with open source scientific applications and can be expanded to support commercial or proprietary software tools.
“When we work with life science organizations, we spend a lot of time talking with the scientists to determine computing needs and translate those needs into architecture. Windows CCS is simpler to manage and deploy,” explains Michael Athanas, Ph.D., Founding Partner of the BioTeam.
User advantages
Scientists want more power and simpler cluster administration. “The power of Windows CCS lies in the deployment and tools that make it very intuitive for the users. Researchers can work on their application from their desktop and not be focused on command line management,” Athanas notes.
The Windows CCS platform is a natural extension for the scientist, says BioTeam Managing Director Stan Gloss, because it can run as a desk-side cluster, a larger cluster for a group of researchers, or as a datacenter system.
Scientists and researchers utilize Windows-based HP desktops and workstations to run both commercial and open source applications. However, certain types of scientific investigation require lengthy calculations that take several hours, days, or, in some instances, are not practical to run on even the most robust desktop. Compute jobs taking even a few hours can significantly slow a scientist’s productivity.
With Windows CCS, researchers can run lengthy, highly-compute intensive calculations in a shorter amount of time in a familiar OS environment.
For example, many scientists and researchers use Microsoft® Office Excel® for collecting, tabulating and crunching data. “With our ability to bring that application to the HPC environment through Windows CCS, researchers never have to leave the spreadsheet,” explains Athanas. “Researchers can submit data queries right from the desktop, and then paste results back into the spreadsheet without having to leave their workstation.”
“[CCS] is about making HPC simple for scientists. They shouldn’t have to be an IT person to benefit from an HPC environment. The combination of Microsoft's product and iNquiry will be a solid and compelling compute solution platform for researchers and scientists," says Athanas.
To take a test drive of iNquiry on Windows CCS, see BIO Team at: www.hp.com/go/transformCCS
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