Nor-Tech Gains Powerful Advantage With Microsoft's HPC Server 2008
Nor-Tech, one of the largest system builders in the U.S., has been working closely with Microsoft for the past 18 months to prepare for the formal launch of HPC Server 2008. Nor-Tech is set to release this month a new line of Office clusters designed to integrate easily into office environments at the Supercomputing '08 conference in Austin, Texas.
"Even though Microsoft is somewhat late to this game, [it is] going to be one of the major players," said Todd Swank, vice president of marketing for Nor-Tech., which has won raves for its ruggedized portable clusters. Nor-Tech's portable clusters, which start at roughly $20,000, provide flexibility and cost savings for demanding scientific, university and defense customers.
That said, Nor-Tech is no stranger to the HPC market. It has been building high-performance clusters for the past seven years. That focus has some of the most prestigious and most sophisticated buyers in the world knocking on Nor-Tech's door. "This is blue ocean strategy for us," Swank said. "Instead of fighting over the same fish in the red, bloody ocean with these products, we are absolutely in the blue ocean."
Combine Nor-Tech's long history in the high-performance computing segment with Microsoft's HPC Server 2008 and you have a game-changer. The combination is putting customers, who at one time had to toggle between a supercomputer for specialized computations and another computer infrastructure for standard productivity applications, in the catbird seat with a ruggedized HPC cluster that increases productivity and reduces their costs by leveraging the existing Windows infrastructure. Take the international energy company that was looking to speed up finite element analysis, but also wanted the ability to attach their existing Active Directory. The HPC Server gives them higher performance and access to a standard productivity infrastructure.
"HPC Server 2008 marries everyday productivity applications with high-end scientific applications," Swank said. "Up until now, high-performance computing has been a Linux stronghold." Microsoft is shaking up the high-performance computing market, he said.
One university is using Nor-Tech portable clusters to take what amounts to a supercomputer that used to only be available via a time-sharing system from classroom to classroom on more than one campus, Swank said.
Nor-Tech is seeing 30 to 40 percent year-over-year sales growth for its HPC systems. "With desktop system sales flat at best with desktop applications moving to the cloud or to mobile solutions, we see the need to transition to other areas. HPC is going to be a huge part of our business in the future," he said.
Nor-Tech has a big advantage over larger competitors when it comes to building custom systems for demanding HPC customers, Swank said.
"The big guys are not quick enough to go after these custom opportunities," he said. "They work slow and there is a lot of bureaucracy."
He said Nor-Tech's HPC smarts, combined with Microsoft's HPC Server 2008, is going to open up a new world of possibilities for scientists and universities. "There are massive problems that need to be solved," he said. "I am extremely optimistic that this is the future of technology. There are new opportunities and markets to build. We are still in the infancy of the information revolution."