This white paper reviews the rise of clusters to dominate the HPC market and points out the elevating effect it has had on the role of the software in use between the operating system and application layers. It clarifies these midstack boundaries and suggests what the HPC management software variety of middleware is and what it is not. It points out how the HPC cluster revolution has set this part of the software stack on a path to become an essential, global binding agent for today’s sprawling HPC hardware and software infrastructure.

The paper discusses the challenges associated with managing clusters and grids and the important role of standards in HPC management software design. IDC profiles Platform Computing as an example of a leading provider in this space and includes mini case studies of Platform Computing customers and a Platform Computing partner.