We are collaborating with university scientists, researchers at Microsoft Research, and developers in Microsoft product teams to expand the tools and services for scientists who need to mine large datasets and store and share data in the cloud.

Highlights

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007
You can uncover hidden patterns and relationships in your data and then put them to work in your analysis. To use the add-ins, you must be connected to a SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services database—but you don’t need prior experience with any SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services components. Learn more: Getting Data Mining Results into SQL Tables… 

Example Projects

MPI.NET 1.0 – HPC Project   This Indiana University project, in collaboration with Microsoft Research, is a high-performance, easy-to-use implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) for the Microsoft .NET environment. MPI.NET provides support for all .NET languages (especially C#) and includes significant extensions (such as automatic serialization of objects) that make it easier to build parallel programs that run on clusters. An MPI.NET runtime component must be installed onto Windows HPC Server 2008.

Tools and Services

Note: Most Microsoft database and developer software packages are free for academics who join Microsoft Faculty Connection.

• HPC Solutions
  • Windows HPC Server 2008 – software and SDK 
  • Supported applications on the Windows HPC platform
  • Microsoft HPC Server 2008 Experience Counts Academic Program 
  • Case studies for Windows HPC Server in academia 
• Community and Discussion
  • WindowsHPC.net – HPC Community and technical forums
  • Dan Reed's blog
• Windows Platform Tools
  • Windows Azure SDK and Azure Services Platform CTP
    • See also: Windows Azure Gallery
  • Windows Workflow Foundation runtime
  • Windows OS Internals Curriculum Resource Kit 
• Case Studies
  • Daggett Research Group Use of HPC Clusters in Computational Chemistry
  • Scripps Institute Researchers Gain Faster Insights; Cut Research Costs in Half
  • CASPUR, Italian Supercomputing Center, Reaches New User Communities with HPC Solution
• Microsoft SQL Server and Data Mining
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services 
• Microsoft .NET and Language Tools
  • F# Programming Language
  • Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package
  • Microsoft Visual C# Express (free download)
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System (VSTOR)
  • Compilers, Languages, Runtimes on Academic Resource Center 
• Software Toolkits from Microsoft Research
  • Dryad and DryadLINQ for Data Intensive Research (academic release planned May 2009)
  • MSR Networked Embedded Sensing Toolkit (MSR Sense) 
  • Phoenix and SSCLI: Results from Compilers, Languages and Runtimes Initiative

Publications

• Dynameomics: a multi-dimensional analysis-optimized database for dynamic protein data. Protein Engineering Design & Selection, 2008 21: 379–386, 2008
• Cloud Computing Tutorial (eScience Workshop 2008)
• High Productivity Computing: Taking HPC Mainstream (eScience Workshop 2008)
• See also: eScience Workshop 2008 presentations

Presentations and Media

• GrayWulf: Petascale Data-Intensive Computing for eScience
  Alexander Szalay, Gordon Bell, Jan Vandenberg, et al.
  Presenter: Alexander Szalay
• SciScope: A Data Discovery and Retrieval Tool for Environmental Science
  Bora Beran and Catharine van Ingen
  Presenter: Bora Beran

Tools and Services for Researchers

• Tools and Services Home
• Tools for Computational Science
• Database, HPC, and Cloud Services for Scientists
• Managing Scientific Workflows
• Microsoft Office Addins for Scientists
• Publication and Conference Management for Scientists
• Software Tools for Computational Biology
• Tools for Web Search Research