High-Performance, Scalable Excel Solutions, powered by GigaSpaces

Business Challenge

Across industries, heavy users of Microsoft Excel embed complex algorithms into spreadsheets, perform complex modelling and process huge amounts of data. These calculations are usually time-critical, but Excel is not built to handle heavy computations, so users' desktop computers are overloaded with long processing times, and frequently crash altogether, resulting in lost productivity. Collaboration among multiple Excel spreadsheet users and the ability to scale are virtually impossible. Traders and quants in financial services, drilling engineers and geoscientists in Oil & Gas, and analysts in retail and manufacturing are just a few examples of users facing these challenges.

Solution Overview

The joint solution from Microsoft and GigaSpaces combines the latest Microsoft technologies – Office Excel (2003 and 2007), SharePoint Server and Windows HPC Server 2008 (Windows Compute Cluster Server) – with the GigaSpaces eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) to deliver unparalleled usability, performance, and scalability.

The solution harnesses the power of the data center to scale Excel-based applications:

• Offload data from Excel to the GigaSpaces “memory cloud “ (with an in-memory data grid, which provides an unlimited database scale-out capability)
• Offload calculations to a grid of servers, enabling them to run in parallel and close to the data, offering Excel the capabilities of application scaling without massive code changes

Benefits

• Handle infinite amounts of data in a reliable manner
• Support for disconnected mode
• Dramatically reduce processing times and enable real-time decision making
• Share data among multiple Excel users and enable better collaboration
• Free up desktop resources
• Shield users from desktop and server failures
• Enable Excel applications to scale up (and down) to meet varying load

Related Resources:

• GigaSpaces Excel solution for financial services
• GigaSpaces Excel solution for Oil&Gas
• Read a GigaSpaces, Microsoft and Clustertech joint solution
• Grid Today: Live by Excel, Die by Excel
• Watch the demo: Excel That Scales
• Read the Microsoft-GigaSpaces joint white paper
• Watch Nati Shalom, GigaSpaces CTO, present at the Grid Technology association and demo the Excel Solution
• Excel That Scales: The Movie
• Excel that Scales - Grid Meets the Middle Office

• Highly-Scalable Compute Fabric for Excel, by Velocimetrics and GigaSpaces