IBM will offer remote, $99 “test drives” of Microsoft’s newly launched supercomputer operating system, Windows HPC Server 2008, via its global network of IBM Computing on Demand facilities.

IBM Computing on Demand, an IBM cloud computing service, leverages IBM’s portfolio of cloud computing technologies and services to provide businesses with a dynamic infrastructure to access more computing power. IBM maintains a broad selection of pay-by-the-hour supercomputing hardware in its Computing on Demand centers for customers and resellers who tap into the high-performance network as needed – hourly, weekly or yearly. Facilities in New York and London offer global users a secure and scalable infrastructure featuring more than 56 terabytes of storage and 13,000 processors based on the latest technologies from Intel and IBM.

“With the Computing on Demand facility, Microsoft and IBM are delivering supercomputing performance to companies that could previously not afford it or never had access to it,” said Vince Mendillo, director of HPC marketing at Microsoft.

IBM plans to offer the Windows HPC Server 2008 test drive in units of 14 to 16 nodes on IBM BladeCenter or System x servers featuring Intel Xeon multi-core processors.

IBM also said that it would make available to on-demand users its high-end 3D visualization engine known as Deep Computing Visualization (DCV). Already used by clients in the automotive, life sciences, aerospace and energy industries, DCV allows for extremely detailed 3D modeling of data. By tapping into DCV on demand, clients can reduce in-house network bottlenecks and offer powerful 3D graphics capabilities to more users. DCV also allows multiple remote users to work on the same data simultaneously.

IBM plans a new web portal interface to help on-demand users schedule computing resources. Automation will help ensure authorized resources are dynamically provisioned into a secure virtual LAN for the client to access at the committed start time, significantly streamlining the on-demand process.

IBM’s Computing on Demand Centers help clients reduce data center expenses, especially power and cooling costs. A variety of security levels help ensure compliance with U.S. Government requirements.