Linux has already been here and done this. For Microsoft to be stepping into this now may not even be an issue for Linux based companies. Still, I guess only time will tell.

Microsoft’s foray into the high-end clustering software market took a step forward May 8 with the availability of the release candidate for its Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 product, a 64-bit operating system for industry-standard x64 processors.

At the other end of the software spectrum, the Redmond, Wash., software company also announced the release candidate for Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 on May 8.

The Windows CCS product will mark a milestone for Microsoft when it’s released in summer 2006, as the company is a latecomer to a market largely dominated by open-source Linux software.

But Microsoft officials said they are committed for the long term to HPC (high-performance computing), as well as to a broader technical and scientific computing area.

Microsoft will release a single 64-bit-only version of CCS 2003. That version will also run on all the hardware platforms supported by Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, on which it is based.

All the major OEMs, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and NEC Solutions America, as well as the major interconnect vendors, have announced support for the product, said Kyril Faenov, Microsoft’s director for HPC. “We are going to work with our hardware partners to tailor the systems to particular market scenarios and then do benchmarks and evidence generation for key applications,” Faenov said….. Source: eWeek

[tags]64-bit,high-end clustering,windows ccs,milestone[/tags]