CHEMISTRY
Customer Demand Drives Rapid Growth of High-Performance Computing on Wall Street
- Forty-five percent of respondents reported that customer demand is currently driving the growth of their firm’s high-performance computing needs.
- Twenty-four percent of respondents reported that they plan on increasing the capacity of their high-performance computing environments by 1,000 nodes or more in the next 12 to 18 months.
- Forty-seven percent reported that performance is the most important factor when purchasing an operating system to run high-performance computing applications.
- Eighty-three percent are considering a Microsoft high-performance computing solution for their next appropriate project.
- Sixty-two percent report that Microsoft Office Excel is the most widely used application in their high-performance computing environment.
- Sixty percent are currently using a 64-bit operating system to run their high-performance computing projects.
- Sixty-three percent report that they deploy their high-performance computing environments as a centralized or shared utility.
Recent hardware and software advances, such as more powerful, lower-cost processors and the launch of Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, have made it easier for analysts, traders and portfolio managers to access high-performance computing tasks. As a result, these professionals can easily ascertain the relationship between risks and profitability and quickly perform high-value business functions. “With the correct high-performance infrastructure in place, capital markets firms can handle larger volumes of data faster and with greater agility,” said Jeff Wierer, senior product manager for high-performance computing at Microsoft. “In addition, firms can reduce time-to-market for innovative product solutions; make smarter, faster trade and risk management decisions; reduce investment and operational risk; and improve profitability.”