IBM buys Platform Computing

High performance computing has caught the attention of all the major vendors

IBM has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire high performance computing (HPC) specialists Platform Computing, in a move that follows increased market interest in HPC recently.

Platform Computing software aims to help clients create, integrate and manage computing environments that are data hungry.

Enterprises have been faced with a surge of data in recent years and this has stimulated a need for resource-intensive applications, such as simulations, computer modelling and analytics.

"High performance computing is a general name for any work that is predominately arithmetic and computationally intense. It can also be named technical computing or sometimes scientific computing," said Carl Claunch, VP and analyst for Gartner.

"Energy companies use it to search for reserves, to better understand how to extract supplies, and to improve efficiency of operations. Financial services firms dealing in securities use it to calculate risks and identify trading opportunities. Insurance firms use it to determine actuarial risks of various populations and to analyze overall exposure or risk to their firms," he added.

Similar acquisitions have been made by Intel, who bough Rapidmind, Dell, who bough RNA Networks and EMC, who bought Insilon.

"IBM considers the acquisition of Platform Computing to be a strategic part of the transformation of HPC into the high growth segment of technical computing and an important part of our smarter computing strategy," said Helene Armitage, general manager, IBM Systems Software.

"This acquisition can be leveraged across IBM as we enhance our IBM offerings and solutions, providing clients with technology that helps draw insights to fuel critical business decisions or breakthrough science."

Claunch argues that IBM has made a smart move with this acquisition, indicating that it will boost IBM's high performance computing portfolio.

"IBM's Power servers have held many of the top spots on the Supercomputing Top 500 list, but the top systems have been shifting rapidly towards Intel or AMD processors," said Claunch.

"Platform Computing software holds a very strong position in high performance computing, with their software used on many systems, not only in the top 500 list but broadly in all industry sectors.

"Their systems have good capabilities to manage the types of systems that are becoming the mainstay of HPC," he added.

"Most importantly from IBM's perspective, it will be the basis for new kinds of business intelligence across many industries, as firms apply complex modeling or simulation to predict the outcomes of various possible business decisions".