When I read this headline, I thought:
"Altair (70's computer) is still around? What do they have to do with PBS (Public Broadcasting Service)? And what are they doing working on an IBM acquisition?"
When I comment on an industry event, such as when IBM announced the acquisition of Platform Computing (see IBM announces acquisition of Platform Computing for more information), I often receive a flurry of messages from other company executives or their PR firms wanting to present a rebuttal or, on a very few occasions, a discussion of why they see the move as a positive to the industry and want to support my analysis. So, it wasn’t surprising when Altair PBS Works reached out through their PR firm to comment on IBM’s move.
It wasn’t long before I was speaking with Bill Nitzberg, CTO of Altair’s PBS Works, and Martin Nichols, CIO of Altair about the state of the industry and why IBM’s move was a good one. Rather than bore you with the details of a long conversation, I’ll offer the high points.
- The availability of processing power made available through cloud computing providers has made it possible for smaller and smaller organizations to use the same analytical tools big companies use without having to purchase their own huge data center.
- Companies increasingly need to analyze huge amounts of data rapidly to make intelligent, fact-based decisions rather than relying on traditional seat-of-the-pants methods. This is true in retail, financial services, design, manufacturing and distribution.
- Many developers, however, do not have experience in developing or deploying high performance, parallel processing applications. They need help and companies such as Platform Computing have been offering “encapsulated high performance computing expertise” for years.
- Platform Computing developed really powerful tools, but never was able to gain general awareness. They seemed to have marketed themselves into a paper bag, but never quite discovered a way to market their way out again.
- IBM is likely to package Platform’s tools with its own tools and made sophisticated, powerful packages available to both customers and partners. IBM’s SmarterComputing marketing team would be likely to make a broad audience aware of and interested in this type of computing. These likely moves will make high performance computing a tool that can be easily used by companies of all sizes.
- Altair PBS Works has focused on enabling organizations use of high performance computing, green computing, cloud computing and looks foward to working with IBM to expand the market.
It was an interesting discussion and certainly worth the time. I hope to speak with Bill and Martin again some time.
