University of Southampton provides Windows access to the UK National Grid Service

The Microsoft Institute for High Performance Computing at the University will be providing access to the Microsoft Compute Cluster Service through a Globus gateway, the first instance of a Windows cluster being incorporated into a production level Grid.

Prof. Simon Cox, Director of the Institute said “This is an exciting opportunity to offer, for the first time, Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server on the National Grid Service, where it will interoperate with other resources”.

The CCS Globus Gateway provides access to a cluster under the Windows x64 platform using the normal Globus client tools and Grid security mechanism, therefore makes it possible to share the Windows based computational resources with a wider user base in the e-Science community.

A large proportion of the UK research community primarily use Windows based systems or are more familiar with Windows than other operating systems. The implementation of the Globus Gateway will allow the NGS to be accessed by a much larger number of researchers who will be able to carry out research under a more familiar operating system.