Microsoft’s U.S. Financial Services Group has showcased its advanced modeling and trading platforms – the Microsoft Office Excel Services/Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 solution at SIA (Securities Industry Association) Technology Management Conference & Exhibit. 

The solution, which is being demonstrated on an HP Cluster Platform 4000 at the HP and Microsoft Break Room at this week’s SIA Technology Management Conference & Exhibit in New York, utilizes the ubiquity of Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets in today’s financial services firms as a front-end interface, combined with the scalability and availability of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 software as a back-end analytic engine.

“Securities firms have long been concerned about spreadsheet creep, particularly in today’s compliance-oriented environment,” said Louise Westerlind, analyst in the securities and investments group at Celent LLC. “Microsoft and its industry partners are in a prime position to solve this problem by combining an Excel front end with a high-performance-computing back end to help brokers unleash the full power of algorithmic trading.”

Several capital markets firms are currently testing the beta versions of Excel 2007 and Excel Services (as part of Office SharePoint Server) in production environments. In addition, Windows is increasingly being adopted for high-performance computing clusters in the financial services industry, such as international banks HVB Group of Germany, Consorzio Operativo Gruppo MPS of Italy and others.

“The banking group at Consorzio Operativo Gruppo MPS is currently evaluating Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, with the help of Microsoft and Avanade, to implement financial Monte Carlo simulations. We believe that Microsoft technology presents clear advantages in terms of implementation and skills utilization,” said Piero Poccianti, head of planning and strategic development at Consorzio Operativo Gruppo MPS. “Windows Compute Cluster Server will provide us with a better integration with the existing Windows infrastructure; moreover, the familiar environment of development allows our developers to write parallel applications in the frame of Visual Studio 2005. We believe that this will allow us to reduce the total cost of ownership for high-performance computing solutions that drive news discoveries and breakthroughs.”