Ryan Waite wrote:
I know some of you aren't, um, tolerant of Microsoft for various reasons
but I thought I'd clear up a couple errors in some of the posts. If you
hate Microsoft at least you now have an email address for when you're
feeling grumpy.
As I now have a chance for a response, I think it is warranted.
Intolerance? No. Suspicious of ulterior motives? Hmmm. Why would
that be?
There are Microsoft tools you won't get from me without prying from my
cold dead fingers. There are Microsoft tools that are extraordinarily
painful to use/deploy, that don't play well with the mainstream
currently in use tools. There are Microsoft tools with a, well, less
than stellar security record or model.
Pricing
Retail pricing for Windows Server is about $750. Retail pricing for
Compute Cluster Server (CCS) is around $470. Most users will get the
product through either an OEM or a volume licensing agreement. In both
cases they pay less than retail. Academic users can purchase CCS for
less than $100.
Lets be clear about this. The pricing (470, 100, ...) is *per node*
correct? If it is not *per node* and is *per cluster* this is an
interesting scenario, and somewhat at odds with what people have been
telling me over the last several months.
CCS is comprised of two CDs. The first is Windows Server. The second CD
contains the clustering tools. The second CD has three major features:
1) a job scheduler, 2) systems management tools, and 3) Microsoft's MPI
stack. The majority of HPC systems sold are small (less than 256 nodes)
and we've designed for those customers. So, users get an OS, job
scheduler, management package, and MPI stack for < $500.
*per node* or *per cluster*
Our MPI stack is based on MPICH2 but we've made performance and security
enhancements. The folks at ANL are very talented UNIX developers but
Windows is more efficient using async overlapped I/O. We've made other,
similar changes to our stack and we're providing those changes back to
ANL for incorporation in future MPICH stacks. We're also the first group
at Microsoft making these kinds of sizable contributions back to the
open source community.
This is good. I am glad to hear this.
As others have noted, the aggressive marketing campaign is a bit over
the top. Linux clusters have been "mainstream" and well integrated into
corporate worlds for a while. This could explain for example that the
market has been experiencing explosive growth long before Microsoft ever
entered it.
Be that as it may, I believe that there are specific areas where it
would be quite valuable to have Microsoft work, and tap into the huge
and rapidly growing market. The replacement strategy represents a risk
to users IMO if Microsoft tires of this (relatively small for them)
market, and decides "no more". There are other areas within HPC where a
strong Microsoft presence would be good, in terms of interoperability,
cross platform scripting/development, interface. Not VBA everywhere.
Mono with hooks to enable us to bind our languages in.
You might take pains to notice that some of us who are vocal critics of
your companies actions and products, are also vocal critics of your
competition. I have been decrying the MPI binary interface issue on
Linux for a long time. This impedes progress IMO. I have praised the
DLL approach where one ABI for MPI would be supported (not one chip/os
ABI, but application level ABI). You might note that some of us heap
appropriate scorn upon the poor choices of some Linux vendors (not
necessarily the ones who sign deals with you).
Thanks,
Ryan Waite
Group Program Manager, HPC
Microsoft
As I said, there are Microsoft products that we will not stop using.
I personally would like to see some of them on Linux. And I would pay
for them on Linux. As I am sure others would as well. I pay for
products that enable me to run them on Linux. I pay for the additional
license so that I legally can run them on Linux.
Now why would that be, if I were intolerant of Microsoft and their
products? Why would I be working hard to get the specific tools (Excel,
Powerpoint, and to an extent, Word) available to me on this platform?
I wonder.
--
Joseph Landman, Ph.D
Founder and CEO
Scalable Informatics LLC,
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web : http://www.scalableinformatics.com
phone: +1 734 786 8423
fax : +1 734 786 8452
cell : +1 734 612 4615
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