NSF, Microsoft join forces in the cloud

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and Microsoft have joined together in a partnership to allow some government-funded scientists to make use of the technology giant's cloud computing platform. The joint effort is designed to provide scientists with a big space for data intensive uses that hopefully will lead to scientific and engineering breakthroughs.

The NSF will choose among applicants, and said it is looking for researchers studying new programming models for the cloud, massively parallel algorithms, and scientific and computational science applications.

Under the terms of the project, Microsoft will provide NSF grant recipients with access to Windows Azure for three years along with a support team to help researchers integrate cloud technology into their research. Microsoft said its researchers and developers will work with grant recipients to equip them with a set of common tools, applications and data collections that can be shared with the broad academic community, and also provide its expertise in research, science, and cloud computing.

"Cloud computing can transform how research is conducted, accelerating scientific exploration, discovery and results," Dan Reed, a corporate vice president, said in a press release. "These grants will also help researchers explore rich and diverse multidisciplinary data on a large scale."

To read more on this collaboration:
- check out this InformationWeek article

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