INDUSTRY

SAN JOSE, Calif.-- ClusterWorld Conference & Expo, the world's premier event on clustered solutions for customers in commercial, research and academic computing, will launch June 23 through 26 at the San Jose Convention Center in California. ClusterWorld will be the first international exposition addressing the business and technology issues of clustered systems in high performance computing, mission-critical high availability applications and the rapidly-emerging field of "clusters of clusters" for distributed applications known as Grid computing. In an IT market suffering its worst economic downturn in two decades, clustering remains a growth industry. Market research firm Gartner Group predicts that within three years, 20 percent of new server shipments will be installed in clusters. Likewise, research firm IDC projects the high-performance computing cluster market alone will more than triple in sales to $1.6 billion in 2006, up from $494 million in 2001. "We are seeing key markets in clustering that are expanding quickly and now share many common business and technical challenges," said Adam Goodman, CEO of QuarterPower Media, publisher of Linux Magazine and producer of ClusterWorld Conference & Expo. "We wanted to create the world's first event where customers could meet with leading experts and vendors to explore common knowledge and solutions across different clustering fields." In conjunction with the conference and expo, QuarterPower Media will also be launching a new monthly publication called ClusterWorld Magazine to meet the ongoing need for in-depth information about designing, deploying and administering clustered systems, Goodman said. Visit www.clusterworld.com for more information. Global IT powerhouses HP and Intel are playing key roles in shaping the inaugural ClusterWorld Conference and Expo. "HP is a leader in delivering advanced clustering solutions that meet our customers' most demanding high-performance computing requirements," said Steve Joachims, director of marketing for HP's High-Performance Technical Computing division. "ClusterWorld gives us the opportunity to showcase how HP is unique in meeting customer challenges in a wide range of clustering environments." "Moore's Law keeps pushing the performance of Intel-based computing platforms to the forefront of scientific and business innovation, and we've made inroads into many of the world's leading Grids and clusters in automotive, energy, life sciences, pharmaceutical and research," said Rick Herrmann, HPC industry manager, Intel. "Intel-based platforms offer customers highly scalable performance at affordable prices and are radically changing the business model to an 'any software, any operating system, any hardware' approach. ClusterWorld provides a venue to continue to drive this HPC ecosystem." ClusterWorld's four-day conference program is unique. Created in conjunction with the Linux Clusters Institute, the program allows attendees to see how clusters are reshaping the competitive landscape while also providing them with the tools they need to meet the day-to-day systems management challenges that arise when clustering large numbers of servers. Specific tracks will also address finance, automotive and aerospace engineering, digital content creation, rendering, simulations and scientific visualization, bioinformatics, and petroleum and geophysical exploration. Attendees can choose the track that best meets their needs and learn first-hand from the experts how to maximize their return on investment. The 40,000-square foot exhibit floor will highlight solutions from leading vendors in hardware systems, storage, networking, databases, systems management, systems integration and more. A partial listing of exhibitors and sponsors already registered includes AMD, APC, Appro, Cyclades, Dell, HP, Intel, Linux Networx, Microway, MSC Software, Myricom, Promicro, Racksaver, RLX Technologies and SuSE. The first ClusterWorld Conference & Expo, debuting June 23 -- 26 at the San Jose Convention Center in California, is expected to draw more than 4,000 key influencers and adopters of clustering solutions. The target audience includes department IT managers from medium to large businesses, cluster systems administrators, cluster application developers and non-technical business managers and researchers who work with clustered systems to solve real-world problems in business, research and academia.