Platform Global Conference assembles IBM, HP, Dell, SAS & Microsoft to discuss environmental opportunities

TORONTO, April 30, 2008 – The Platform Global Conference 2008 (PGC08), to be held May 19-21, in Santa Clara, California, will bring together industry leaders IBM, HP, Dell, SAS, Microsoft and Platform Computing for a special panel on the growing environmental issues related to High Performance Computing (HPC).   As the need for compute power continues to grow, the amount of electricity, cooling, space and equipment required for HPC datacenters has traditionally grown in lock step.  The PGC08 panel on sustainable computing will explore opportunities available for hardware and software vendors to decrease datacenter demands and ultimately reduce their energy and carbon footprints. In addition, Robert F Kennedy Jr. will be delivering a keynote address on corporate responsibility and Microsoft’s General Manager Eddie Amos will be focusing his keynote speech on Microsoft’s efforts to improve energy efficiency in computing.

The panel session titled, “Can a HPC Datacenter Go Green?” moderated by Platform Computing, will investigate innovative strategies these companies are undertaking to help organizations create energy efficient datacenters and save costs. Panelists will discuss such topics as server consolidation, more power efficient servers, optimization of multi-core processors, enterprise resource sharing and workload dispatching based on environmental parameters.    Audience participation is expected to be lively and valuable as companies explore energy-efficient initiatives.

“Energy efficiency and the effects of IT on the environment are among Microsoft’s chief concerns as power consumption rises faster than the average datacenter can accommodate,” said Eddie Amos, General Manager of Worldwide Partner Evangelism, Microsoft.  “We’re committed to high performance computing and delivering energy efficient server platforms to help our customer address these power issues; we look forward to sharing our expertise with Platform, its partners and customers and are delighted to be participating at this important panel.”

“Our customers are looking to Platform and our partners to assist them in reducing their overall compute costs which include the huge expense in running their datacenters,” said Tom Zsolt, Vice President, Marketing, Platform Computing and PGC08 Green Panel Moderator.  “The solutions to this issue will not come from one organization, but from an entire industry exploring different strategies to make the datacenter more energy efficient and subsequently more economic.  We are very happy to have assembled such a respected panel to foster this discussion and hope the audience at PGC08 becomes involved in an educational exchange as we all work to tackle this issue.”

PGC08 is the premier event showcasing HPC solutions and will also feature keynote presentations by Scott Miller of DreamWorks Animation SKG and Dr. Earl Joseph, Vice President HPC Programs at IDC.  With increasing pressure to deliver results faster, better, and more cost effective solutions, HPC technology continues to drive business performance and competitiveness.  PGC08 is the place to learn how industry leaders leverage HPC management software across a diverse set of industries including Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing, Financial Services, Oil and Gas, Education and Government.

PGC08 is sponsored by Microsoft, IBM, HP, SAS and Dell.  For additional details and to register visit http://www.platform.com/pgc08.

About Platform Computing
Platform Computing is a pioneer and the global leader in High Performance Computing (HPC) management software. The company delivers integrated software solutions that enable organizations to improve time-to-results and reduce computing costs.  Many of the world’s largest companies rely on Platform to accelerate compute and data intensive applications and manage cluster and grid systems. Platform has over 2,000 global customers and strategic relationships with Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat and SAS, along with the industry’s broadest support for HPC applications. Building on 15 years of market leadership, Platform continues to define the HPC market. Visit www.platform.com.

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Shalon Roth
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