Microsoft HPC Server

[HairyArsedBloke]

I’ve had a line on my research to do list Excel-HPC for over a year. I’ve forgotten what it meant until this morning. It’s regarding farming out calculations from excel off to this Microsoft HPC server thingy.

I don’t really have any performance problems at the moment. None of my clients haven’t mentioned anything about having anything like it. In fact I’ve not seen distributed calculations in action since the time HAB Inc relocated out of the UK in 2001. It looks interesting, but I’ve got far more pressing things to concern myself with and I’m not really a techie anymore. Does anyone use it? Is it something I should be bothered with, or should I just bin the entry.

[RichardCranium]

Scuttles off to Google to understand the question...

Link 1.:

Microsoft Office Excel has found a home deep rooted in computational finance. Many of the world’s best kept financial secrets are housed in spreadsheets.

Microsoft High Performance Computing platform allows companies to run financial applications, such as Microsoft Excel, on a Windows HPC Cluster.

Take the example of pricing calculations in capital markets and the use of Monte Carlo simulations for randomized scenario analysis and for calculating risk exposure.

I think all of us that have had exposure to user support or replacing user-created office automation systems with real systems will have a good idea of how poor user-generated spreadsheets are.

Link 2.

Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 is addressing the increased computing demands of the market by providing fast and reliable management of clusters with Out-of-the-box support for thousands of processing cores.

So it is about parallel processing over clusters of machines. 'Cloud computing' then. With all its inherent security issues that are currently taxing a lot of clever people.


So if I have this right,the major economies of the world are dependent upon user-generated spreadsheets whose tricky bits are run on insecure and unreliable Microsoft cloud networks?

Isaac Asimov had promised us that Multivac would manage the world and look after us. He was wrong.

We're f***ed.

Unless YOU can save us, HAB.

[HairyArsedBloke]

So if I have this right,the major economies of the world are dependent upon user-generated spreadsheets whose tricky bits are run on insecure and unreliable Microsoft cloud networks?

Well, actually, yes.

We're f***ed.

Yup.

Unless YOU can save us, HAB.

Oh frak!

[RichardCranium]

I hope I am not spoiling your chances of getting an answer from someone who knows that they are talking about.

However, this past year I have seen a lot of talks being held at BCS meetings and as seminar sessions about cloud computing and distributed computing; in particular the issues around security and making it work properly. It is, therefore, a popular theme.

I should like to think that there will be some scrutiny being applied to how the big economies work - in particular, the stock markets. These appear to be mostly driven by risk modelling and Monte Carlo seems to be the favoured method (which in itself I find a little worrying). I should have thought, therefore, it is an area that may get attention.

I have seen quite a few financial PM roles in the city requiring risk analysis experience / knowledge.

So, based on my external but inexperienced view, I would have thought HPC Server and Excel-HPC would be valid areas for research. Either as areas where roles may increasingly appear for a short while or as a Plan B opportunity.

Our good friend menelaus was into something near to this field. Given he is currently indisposed, there is a small hole in his market.

Is there a Plan B opportunity for providing a risk analysis consultancy? That is, modelled on the old bureau services that used to exist in the 60s, 70 and 80s? Whereby you provide the systems for specialist problem solving and re-sell that across the risk analysis market?

There MUST be loadsamoney to be made there in that market right now: professionally built, proven analysis tools + the systems to run them.

(I wonder if AtW would rent out his spare clock cycles to do number crunching on his otherwise I/O bound computers?)

[HairyArsedBloke]

Is there a Plan B opportunity for providing a risk analysis consultancy? That is, modelled on the old bureau services that used to exist in the 60s, 70 and 80s? Whereby you provide the systems for specialist problem solving and re-sell that across the risk analysis market?

There MUST be loadsamoney to be made there in that market right now: professionally built, proven analysis tools + the systems to run them.

You are getting a little warmer if you are trying to figure out what HAB Inc. does.

Just keep it to yourself and not tell anyone.