“We have identified around a hundred opportunities in India for Windows Compute Cluster 2003 and we would also explore the market potential among SMBs for the product here”

Microsoft has entered the High Performance Computing market with its flagship
product Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and Vaibhav Phadnis is confident
that its cost advantages, ease-of-use and partner ecosystem will help Microsoft
build traction and make a mark in the Indian market

What according to you have been the significant changes in the HPC market
in recent times? Now that you have entered the HPC market with a new product,
how can Microsoft benefit from the same?

The High Performance Computing (HPC) has been changing since 1999. Still
dominated by Linux and Unix based systems, clusters are slowly but surely
replacing the general proprietary systems. With this shift, the market has grown
and today's clusters have increased capability and are far more affordable.
When one looks back, one realizes that the price of HPC technology has fallen
considerably over the past years. For example, a 10G Flops Cray machine that
cost $40 million in 1991 would cost less than $4,000 in 2005. Adoption to
clusters has become more rapid today with more users preferring integrated
solutions to the traditional ones. In essence this means that new market
segments are opening up providing better business opportunities for vendors like
us.

Vaibhav Phadnis Director-Windows Server group, Microsoft

Highlight the features of Compute Cluster 2003. What value adds would you
as well as the users get by adapting to the same?

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is Microsoft's flagship product for HPC.
This is Microsoft's first software product designed specifically to run
parallel, high-performance computing applica­tions for customers solving
complex computations. The Compute Cluster Server (CCS) is designed to run
applications in complex computing environments and aims at taking supercomputing
to the mainstream. Compute Cluster Server 2003 is all set to address user pain
points such as long set-up times, lack of integration between clusters and
application availability. This is because CCS brings cost advantages,
ease-of-use and a partner ecosystem of the Windows Server platform to
departments in commercial industry and public sector. Simplicity and ease of use
of CCS will help us build traction and we are betting on user familiarity and
technology partnerships to make a mark in the market.

What key verticals have you identified as key focus segments for your new
product in India? What kind of partnerships and go-to- market strategies are you
looking at in India for the product?

We have identified academia, engineering, oil and gas and public sector as our
key focus segments in India. As far as our go-to-market strategies go, we are
working with several Indian and global ISVs, partners and hardware manufacturers
to develop and release solutions that run on, or interoperate with, Windows
Compute Cluster Server 2003. We already have with us partners like AMD, Dell,
Intel, HP and IBM along with ISVs such as Abaqus, Ansys, MSC Software and the
ESI group to take the product into the market here. We have identified around a
hundred opportunities in India, which would help us grow in this space and
expand our presence here. While many of our customers for the CCS are in the
enterprise segment, we would additionally also explore the market potential
among SMBs for CCS here in India to help us get a better footprint in the market
here.

How can solution providers and systems integrators move up the value chain
with this new platform?

Given that CCS offers ease of use and cost advantages, partners can easily scale
up and benefit from the growing opportunity. This is also because most of are
already familiar working with clusters. The additional value add for them with
platforms like CCS would be in the services area whereby partners can benefit
from application consulting. Given that HPC is a rapidly growing area and
clusters are being shipped in greater frequency these days, partners have
immense business opportunities to benefit from. In fact, not just partners but
application vendors as well as ISVs can benefit big time from the growing market
opportunity.

Your comments on the HPC market growth and the India scene therefore.

One thing is clear that HPC is a rapidly growing market. According to IDC
reports, high-performance and technical computing (HPTC) market grew
approximately 24 percent in 2005 to reach a record $9.2 billion in revenue. The
HPC showed growth of over 50 percent of HPTC market revenue in first quarter of
2006. The worldwide x86 HPTC cluster revenue grew 70 percent year over year
(2004 to 2005) and IDC indicated that HPC clusters in the lower-end capacity
segments of the market would see substantial customer adoption in the coming
years. These systems represent a significant initial opportunity for Windows CCS
2003.

As far as India is concerned, it is certainly one of the fastest growing
markets in the HPC space globally. Large-scale adoption of clusters in the oil
and gas sector, manufacturing and public sector has fuelled this rapid growth
and the future will see the need for greater value additions in the HPC space
for the customer. As far as Microsoft is concerned, we are here to make use of
this opportunity and grow bigger and better.

Additionally while looking at HPC, we are also looking at venturing into the
security space with a slew of products lined up for launch in the near future.

Subbalakshmi BM