I recently saw an interesting article on the use of Windows in HPC clusters and as I read through it, I realized that the names ‘Windows’ and ‘Linux’ could have easily been swapped throughout the piece if the subject was enterprise servers in 2002. The OS with the hold on the market and most of the cluster management, interconnect and other supporting software: Linux. The challenger creeping into the market in smaller deployments at competitive price: Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS). I don’t think Redmond is ready to put much dent in the armor Linux has managed to build up around HPC clusters, particularly the biggest and fastest ones

Linux made a quick ascent and has continued domination of the Top500 Supercomputer List for more than a few years, and it’s unlikely that Microsoft will manage much presence in this part of the market. However, the lower end of the high-end IT market is where there is perhaps the greatest growth potential and also where Microsoft is pinning its HPC hopes. Linux vendors in the space, such as Penguin Computing and Linux Networx, as well as large HPC vendors IBM and HP, are also focusing on this market. The Linux cluster and server players would be wise to keep an eye in the rear view mirror for Microsoft, and learn from the lessons of Redmond and its strategic struggle with Linux on servers. The good news is that unlike Microsoft’s Windows, Linux is not the product of a single vendor, and the different options help it to largely avoid lock-in reservations.

While Microsoft is likely to follow up its HPC Windows release with improvement in subsequent versions, Linux clusters will likewise get pushed along by the many vendors that sell and support them. The fact that it is Linux with the most support and scalability advantage in HPC clusters shows how far the open source OS has come. The challenge remains keeping an innovative edge and keeping in touch in order to retain HPC customers, many of whom are unfamiliar with Windows, but are, as open source shows, often willing to consider ‘alternative’ software.