Microsoft Chief Financial Officer
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer
Microsoft and Cray deliver "mainstream" CX1 supercomputer: starts at $25k
Microsoft and Cray Team Up to Drive High ProductivityComputing Into the Mainstream Cray CX1 Supercomputer With Windows HPC Server 2008 and Intel Xeon Processors Starts at $25,000 and Provides "Ease-of-Everything" for New Users of HPC
Supercomputer leader Cray Inc. and Microsoft Corporation today introduced the new Cray CX1 supercomputer pre-installed with Windows HPC Server 2008. With U.S. list prices starting at $25,000 to over $60,000, "ease-of-everything" features and the ability to fit into standard office environments and workflows, the new product reflects Microsoft and Cray's shared goal to drive high productivity computing farther into the mainstream in a broad array of markets including financial services, aerospace, automotive, petroleum, life sciences, government, academic and digital media.
Studies released by the Council on Competitiveness and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) found that nearly all large firms using HPC consider it indispensable for their ability to compete and survive, but smaller companies, as well as workgroups and departments in larger firms, have been hampered by the cost of HPC systems and a lack of access to in-house experts to help them use these systems.
The Cray CX1 supercomputer was designed from the ground up to address these barriers. It is the most affordable supercomputer ever offered by Cray and is designed to be easy to purchase, deploy, operate and upgrade. Purpose-built for offices, laboratories and university departments, the Cray CX1 is the world's highest-performing computer that uses standard office power.
The Cray CX1 product incorporates up to 8 nodes and 16 Intel Xeon processors, either dual or quad core; delivers up to 64 gigabytes of memory per node; and provides up to 4 terabytes of internal storage. Systems can be configured with a mix of compute, storage and visualization blades to meet customers' individual requirements. The quiet, deskside supercomputer features Windows HPC Server 2008 and interoperates with Linux. A three-year warranty with next-day, on-site Cray-certified support is standard.
"Windows HPC Server 2008, in combination with the Cray CX1 supercomputer, will provide outstanding sustained performance on applications," said Vince Mendillo, director, HPC at Microsoft Corp. "This combined solution will enable companies in various sectors to unify their Windows desktop and server workflows. Many Microsoft financial services customers, for example, want to unify back-office modeling and simulation with the work of front-office trading desks."
"IDC research shows that HPC has been one of the highest-growth IT markets during the past five years and the segment for HPC systems priced below $100,000 is headed for continued growth," said Earl Joseph, IDC's HPC program vice president. "The Cray HPC brand name and experience, combined with Microsoft's strategy of extending the familiar Windows environment upward to the server level, gives the Cray CX1 solution strong potential for exploiting the anticipated growth of this market segment."
"Cray sees Microsoft Windows becoming an increasingly important force in the HPC market," said Ian Miller, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Cray. "With the Cray CX1 high productivity system and Windows HPC Server 2008, we're bringing the power of Cray supercomputing to a much wider range of new users with an affordable and adaptable system that provides incredible value and is easy to install, program and use with a broad array of applications from independent software vendors (ISVs)."
The Cray CX1 high productivity system is also the first Cray product to incorporate Intel processors and the first milestone of the unique collaboration Cray and Intel announced in April to develop a range of HPC systems and technologies over the next several years to address various segments of the HPC industry.
"Taking advantage of the energy-efficient performance of the Intel Xeon processor 5400 series, Cray's CX1 system will bring many HPC capabilities to the office that were previously confined to the datacenter, enabling more users to employ supercomputing to help them solve some of their most difficult computational problems," said Richard Dracott, Intel's General Manager of High Performance Computing, "In addition, we continue to collaborate with Cray on developing the supercomputing technologies of the future, aimed at all segments of the HPC market."
Scientists at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at UCLA plan to use a Cray CX1 with Microsoft HPC Server 2008 for mathematical modeling and visualization. This will support their development of advanced computational algorithms and scientific approaches for the comprehensive and quantitative mapping of brain structure and function.
"We are very excited about utilizing the Cray CX1 to support our research activities," said Rico Magsipoc, Chief Technology Officer for the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. "The work that we do in brain research is computationally intensive but will ultimately have a huge impact on our understanding of the relationship between brain structure and function, in both health and disease. Having the power of a Cray supercomputer that is simple and compact is very attractive and necessary, considering the physical constraints we face in our data centers today."
The Cray CX1 supercomputer was designed to reduce entry barriers for small firms thinking of using HPC technologies, by reducing the cost of these systems and making it easier to have in-house experts with OS knowledge.
This is the most affordable supercomputer offered by Cray and is designed to be easy to purchase, deploy, operate and upgrade. Purpose-built for offices, laboratories and university departments, the Cray CX1 is the world's highest-performing computer that uses standard office power.
About the Author
http://install-how.blogspot.com/2010/05/microsoft-and-cray-deliver-mainstream_21.html
Scalability Experts and Microsoft Announce a New SQL Server Code Name “Denali” Database Upgrade Tool for Application ...
The free Microsoft SQL Server Code Name “Denali” Upgrade Assistant (SSUA) in now available for download from Scalability Experts. The SSUA tool helps automate application compatibility testing to detect potential issues that may impact a database upgrade from SQL 2005 or SQL 2008 to SQL Server Code Name “Denali” and verifies that queries from a SQL Server application will produce the same ...
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer
Windows 7 NYC Launch Party: Team Celebration
Microsoft Dynamics GP for Life Sciences
Using Dynamics GP in an FDA Validated environment!
Life Science professionals are constantly dealing with ever changing rules and regulations. Having efficient technology solutions to help streamline operations and comply with the always evolving validation requirements is a necessity in today's business world.
Microsoft continues to focus their efforts on enabling life sciences organizations to quickly deploy an integrated set of leading-edge business applications inexpensively, and without complicated customizations. To maximize personal productivity, Microsoft offers Dynamics GP, a flexible and rapid deployment option with a familiar user experience, as the business accounting/ERP software for the Life Science Industry.
Recently, FMT Consultants published the following Case Study on how it delivered an FDA Validated ERP and manufacturing solution for Isis Pharmaceuticals.
***
Client Background
Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("ISIS") is the leader in antisense drug development, providing a broad pipeline of drugs applicable to many different diseases. Its antisense technology provides a direct route from genes to drugs, targeting disease at the source. To date, Isis has generated more than $1.6 billion from the successful execution of its partnership strategy, in which Isis licenses its drugs to partners prior to late-phase development and commercialization, in exchange for upfront license fees, milestone payments and royalties as its partners license and develop its drugs. In addition, ISIS leads the RNA-based therapeutic community as the owner or exclusive licensee of more than 1,600 patents worldwide.
Business Challenge
Because ISIS is a pre-profit company, at least until a drug is successfully brought to market, managing cash flow is critical. Additionally, investors' dollars must largely support innovation through research and development, not administration and overhead. The initial challenge for ISIS was to replace a limited and aging DOS-based accounting system with software that could provide increased and integrated budget management, purchasing and accounting capabilities. A new, effective ERP/Accounting system needed to greatly decrease administrative labor hours, and greatly increase visibility and tracking of expenses.
Additionally, ISIS needed systems that could effectively manage today's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) needs and support company growth well into the future, including manufacturing systems that were compliant with stringent FDA regulations.
Business Solution
In 1997, ISIS engaged FMT Consultants, LLC ("FMT") to guide them through the initial software selection process. Ultimately, ISIS chose Microsoft Dynamics GP for its ERP product and FMT as its implementation, customization, and support partner. That partnership has lasted more than 12 years and continues to the present date.
The implementation began with core financial systems, followed by project costing and government reporting capabilities. For the first time, scientists could track specific expenditures and the accuracy of materials they ordered. Because of the high cost of laboratory materials, something as simple as a transposed character on a purchase order could jeopardize the timely and costeffective completion of a project.
In 2000, due to expanding business needs, ISIS initiated an even broader implementation under the direction of Beth Hougen, Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer. Her objectives were three-fold:
- Ensure that the systems were structured to take ISIS well into the future with minimal changes.
- Fully optimize the software while integrating it with all ancillary software.
- Enable ISIS to become "self-sufficient" in managing the system.
According to Ms. Hougen, the implementation went beautifully and according to plan, resulting in a fully integrated financial system that was entirely in the hands of ISIS to maintain.
In 2000, another essential business requirement for ISIS was to be able to manufacture commercial quantities of its lead drug. This meant that manufacturing systems needed to be brought into a state of validation compliant with FDA regulations. While at the time FMT had minimal experience with the actual validation process itself, they were still selected to partner with ISIS to produce the validation documentation, a laborious and detail-oriented project, primarily because FMT already knew the ISIS manufacturing process so well and ISIS trusted FMT with the ultimately successful validation effort.
By 2007, because ISIS was no longer manufacturing its drugs for commercial sale, its manufacturing processes had fallen out of an FDA validated state. So in late 2008, ISIS determined it would begin an entirely new validation effort. FMT took on the project management role, providing a high-level plan and producing all the documentation including installation qualification, process qualification and user requirements. By early 2009, the manufacturing system was again successfully brought into a validated state.
Over time, ISIS has successfully and economically upgraded from the first implementation of Great Plains (Version 4) to the latest version to date, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0.
Looking forward, ISIS together with FMT expects to develop a new, expanded chart of accounts and to improve its financial reporting capabilities to serve the company for years to come.
Benefits
According to ISIS executives, the company has experienced profound benefits from Microsoft Dynamics GP and FMT including:
- More accurate, timely and transparent expense reporting
- Less time devoted to manual, repetitive tasks and guesswork
- Real-time reporting for improved collaboration with partners
- Efficiencies in financial management resulting in a small staff relative to the company size
- Assurance that manufacturing systems are compliant with Title 21 CFR part 11 of the FDA validation requirements
- A trusted partner that works effectively with a broad range of technology, and sensitively within the ISIS culture.
***
FMT Consultants has comprehensive experience in the Life Science industry. Our clients span from Discovery Phase organizations to Globally Mature companies. With a strong dedication to the Life Science's community, FMT understands what is required for companies to move from one phase to the next and uses technology to ease this transition while gaining and maintaining compliance in and around the implemented systems.
FMT recognizes the complexities and demands required for successfully managing a Life Sciences company, and offers technology services that help streamline operations, improve reporting capabilities, gain real-time access to information, and improve data and inventory tracking.
FMT also understands the regulatory and compliance issues that many Life Science companies are facing and have developed a library of Intellectual Property that provide a cost effective validation solution. As a firm that utilizes the entire Microsoft stack, FMT clientele will always have the most up-to-date technology software and with our CustomerCare Training Series which offers cost effective training for new hires, full user competence is assured.
For more information, check out http://www.fmtconsultants.com/lifesciences
About the Author
Matthew Holden
Manager, Client Relations
FMT Consultants, LLC, a California Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Dynamics CRM and GP
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer
