Linux admins, start checking out the HOWTOs and FAQs on Linux clusters. While they might not be as common as file and print servers, Linux-based supercomputers are increasingly showing up at medium and large-sized business to simulate everything from product designs to the company's own business processes.

Large corporations have been using supercomputers for more than a decade. Global oil companies, for instance, initially used the machines to model the geology of potential drilling sites. Some companies began to use the machines to try "what-if" scenarios about their own business processes when advanced mathematical modeling applications became available. Only supercomputers could handle the dizzying number of variables that describe a large business.

Those programs cost millions to run annually, not to mention the multi-tens-of-millions of bucks that the hardware cost. A decade later, however, Linux supercomputers that can be had for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are already at work doing engineering models, visualizing crash tests, and performing lots of other jobs that save corporations big money.

Full story...