Understanding High Performance Computing
Historically, the term High-Performance Computing (HPC) was used when discussing a mainframe computer or a computer cluster that performed a high-volume of computations at blistering speeds. The Cray Supercomputer is the most obvious example, and for those science fiction buffs, even better examples (albeit completely fictional) were personified by HAL-9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Computer (Star Trek). In either case, the historical HPC world was developed around science and academia, as the cost of supercomputing systems prevented most businesses from even considering it.

Today the HPC term stretches beyond superfast computational computers to include a wide range of modern day technologies such as storage, networking, data management, media, messaging, etc. Given the broad range of workloads and usage scenarios, HPC has also been called "High Productivity Computing." Regardless of the nomenclature, HPC has been—and still is—focused on productivity through incredibly powerful and lightening fast server technology.

What Can HPC Do For You and Why Should You Use It?
HPC solutions connect a group of servers to create a compute "cluster" that provides scaled-out server power. HPC solutions both reduce execution time for computations, and increase the output speed for which data is processed and returned to the requesting application. This computational speed and power is why HPC is used in the fields like:

• Oil & Gas: HPC provides the power required to analyze geophysics and determine the best locations for drilling new wells.
• Space Exploration: HPC clusters have the computational power to analyze galaxies and test astronomical theories.
• Animation: HPC provides the power required to perform complex image rendering required by digital animation, and reduces the notoriously long rendering time for this process.

HPC provides a significant amount processing power that you can harness to scale your applications.

Microsoft's HPC Strategy
I doubt that Microsoft comes to mind when you think of building an HPC cluster. Microsoft's focus on the businesses and business infrastructure doesn't necessarily tout Microsoft's HPC capabilities. Look for this lack of HPC recognition to change over the coming years, however, as Microsoft is serious about gaining HPC market share. Microsoft's strategy is to make HPC a mainstream option for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) by making their solution simple to deploy and manage.