New Azure resources for researchers
Topline:
1. Microsoft will announce some key technologies/services for HPC (Azure) at Supercomputing 2012.
2. Microsoft will also announce a new algorithm on Windows Azure that enables Genomic Scientists to do large genome data analysis at our Genomics Workshops (see www.i2azure.com).
See below for details:
Windows Azure offers customers a cloud platform that can manage any type of application including applications that require large amounts of compute power (often referred to as Big Compute).
Announced a new set of Windows Azure capabilities for Big Compute. This includes:
Hardware for Big Compute: We are excited to announce enhanced capabilities of Windows Azure with a new infrastructure for Big Compute. The new Big Compute configurations in Windows Azure are in private preview now with partners and will be publicly available in 2013:
- Microsoft HPC Pack 2012: The Microsoft HPC Pack 2012 makes it easy to run Big Compute workloads entirely on-premises, on Windows Azure, or a hybrid combination of both. The Microsoft HPC Pack 2012will be available in December 2012.
- FaST-LMM: Microsoft Research developed a new algorithm to extend the ability to detect new biological relations by using data that is several orders of magnitude larger. The Factored Spectrally Transformed Linear Mixed Model, known as FaST-LMM, allows much larger datasets to be processed and can, therefore, detect more subtle signals in the data.
With these announcements Microsoft is expanding its commitment to make Windows Azure one of the most powerful infrastructures with fast processors, large memory, and low-latency high bandwidth networking. As a result, customers can easily take advantage of the elasticity and TCO benefits of running their applications in the cloud.
-With a massively powerful and scalable infrastructure, the new instance configurations, and the Microsoft HPC Pack 2012, Windows Azure is designed to be the best platform for Big Compute applications.
- Microsoft enables customers to adopt Windows Azure for their Big Compute applications, in their own terms. Through Microsoft HPC Pack, customers have the choice of running Big Compute applications entirely in the cloud, entirely on-premises or in a hybrid mode where parts of the application reside in the cloud and parts reside on-premises.
- Microsoft helps to advance scientific discovery and research by empowering scientists, researchers and businesses to leverage the power of “big data” computing.
- Technology, like cloud computing, can be brought to bear to help solve challenges that are critical to society.