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Digipede Technologies today introduced the Digipede Network™ Version 1.2, featuring full support for .NET 2.0, Microsoft's next-generation framework and tools for building and running business applications. The Digipede Network pools the power of Windows desktops and servers to deliver dramatically improved performance for real-world business applications. The solution is built entirely on Microsoft .NET technologies, and is radically easier to buy, install, learn, and use than competing grid solutions. "As the first commercial distributed computing solution built entirely on .NET, we're committed to Microsoft's latest advances. Today, we're the first to bring grid computing capability to the .NET Framework 2.0," said John Powers, CEO of Digipede. "As our customers migrate to .NET 2.0 and take advantage of its many improvements for application development and deployment, they can continue to boost their application performance with the Digipede Network. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we appreciate Microsoft’s support in inviting us to participate in this global launch event.” The Digipede Network is the only grid computing solution exhibiting at today's Microsoft launch event for Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 (Kiosk NC-12). The Digipede Network Version 1.2 integrates with and fully supports the Visual Studio 2005 software programming tools and the SQL Server 2005 database. The Digipede Framework API, with support for .NET 1.1, .NET 2.0, and COM, allows developers to use the familiar Visual Studio environment to produce high-performance distributed applications. The Digipede Network Professional Edition also ships (optionally) with SQL Server 2005. Many diverse applications can benefit from increased scalability and performance through distributed computing. Using the recently released Digipede Framework SDK, software developers can grid-enable their applications, so scientists, analysts, engineers, project managers and many others with compute-intensive needs can benefit from the improved performance of a distributed application. Developers can use the Digipede Framework SDK directly from the tools Microsoft developers know best, including Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005. “Digipede solutions help IT buyers virtualize their Microsoft Windows environments – making it possible to pool server resources to optimize resource utilization, lower management costs, and tackle complex computing workloads” said Joe Clabby, VP of Systems and Storage at Summit Strategies. “Digipede’s Team Edition makes it possible for enterprises to build virtualized computing grids at a very attractive price point – and its new Digipede Network Professional Edition enables enterprises to scale into larger grid configurations easily and cost effectively”. According to Gartner analyst Carl Claunch, "Adoption of grid is steadily increasing, particularly in industry segments such as finance and life sciences, as grid unlocks business value not feasible with traditional computing approaches.” The Digipede Network is a powerful software tool that parcels out the most complex computing jobs within a department, or across an entire enterprise network, by dynamically allocating the computing power of both dedicated and idle resources. The Digipede Network dramatically improves the speed and scalability of many types of real-world business applications. Because the Digipede Network is easy to deploy and use, customers can focus on solving their key business and research problems rather than wasting time developing a distributed computing infrastructure. The Digipede Network is available in two editions: the Digipede Network Team Edition meets the needs of small departments and labs that may only have up to 20 computers, while the Digipede Network Professional Edition supports large departments and enterprises with hundreds or thousands of desktops, servers, and cluster nodes across a network. Both Editions include the Digipede Workbench, which is designed to shorten the learning curve so that users can become productive immediately. Through a familiar Windows user interface, users can run distributed computing jobs with ease. Wizards assist users with learning and using the system quickly, and powerful designers provide access to greater system functionality. No complex scripting is required. Availability and Pricing The Digipede Network is available now directly from Digipede Technologies. The Digipede Network Team Edition starts at $995 for a system licensing one Digipede Server and five Digipede Agents; additional Agents can be licensed for $199 each. The Digipede Network Professional Edition starts at $4,000 for a similar configuration. Current customers of the Digipede Network Team Edition can upgrade to the Professional Edition at a discount; contact email protected from spam bots for details. Both editions of the Digipede Network include the Digipede Framework SDK at no additional charge.