Platform Computing has entered into an agreement to hire the principles of Scalable Systems Pte Ltd. Based in Singapore, the Scalable Systems team brings a wealth of experience in the development of open source software solutions and will be instrumental in the establishment of Platform's Open Source Grid Development Center (OSGDC).  

The Singapore center will initially be focused on supporting, developing and contributing to the Rocks development at the San Diego Supercomputing Center. Over the last two and a half years, Platform has marketed Rocks cluster system software and has seen the opportunity for market expansion in this area. Moving forward, the OSGDC will be involved in new initiatives to advance Platform's strategy of a standardization software cluster stack and the adoption of x86 clusters across the enterprise. As the market for open cluster solutions continue to expand and reduce the need for costly SMP servers, Platform is well positioned to leverage this opportunity and drive the industry forward.

"Platform will continue to be aggressive in pursuing strategies that enables us to broaden our market leadership and maximize the opportunities we see emerging in enterprise IT. The Scalable Systems team brings a wealth of open source know-how and industry relationships to Platform that further deepen our open source project development and are an ideal fit," said Songnian Zhou, CEO of Platform Computing. "The evolution of cluster computing and the expansion of its applicability to an extended set of business computing challenges is a key strategy for Platform and the OSGDC will play a critical part in realizing our vision of a standardized cluster software stack."

"Scalable has been co-developing Rocks since 2001 and is eager to bring this valuable experience to Platform Computing where we believe we can make a larger contribution to the open source cluster and Grid community," said Laurence Liew of Scalable Systems. "Our combined expertise in open source cluster technologies and Platform's tremendous partner ecosystem provide a winning combination for customers in terms of quality of solution and choice of vendors for their cluster environments".

"I congratulate Platform Computing on the establishment of an Open Source Grid Development Center in Singapore," said Boon Swan Foo, managing director of the Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. "Platform Computing's presence will contribute to the rapidly growing Grid-related R&D and businesses in Singapore and the region."