The Adapter for Microsoft Excel is now part of the Platform Symphony Suite, software that accelerates online and batch operations for business-critical financial services applications. The new feature helps to decrease calculation time whilst increasing server utilization and guaranteeing trader service levels.

Traditionally, the demanding compute-intensive models such as those involved in exotics or derivatives trading meant that program updating was an expensive, time-consuming and occasionally incomplete exercise. And reprogramming spreadsheets was not a viable option for analytics departments who often deploy hundreds of such complex spreadsheets. Now, with the Adapter for Microsoft Excel, both the user and organization can speed and increase the number of trades by accelerating spreadsheet processing via the grid.

"By allowing users to quickly grid-enable Microsoft Excel applications without the need to write new code, Platform Computing continues to provide enterprises with business computing break-throughs that demonstrate tangible benefits and instant ROI," said Greg Rankich, HPC Solution Manager, Microsoft Corp. "We look forward to furthering our relationship as more business-critical applications like Excel move to grid computing."

"In the financial services industry, where every second saved in calculations means a major competitive advantage, grid-enabling a pervasive application such as Microsoft Excel means faster time to increased revenue and profit," said Robert Boettcher, VP, Financial Services, Platform Computing. "Platform Computing is leading the adoption of grid capabilities in financial services. We see more enterprises embrace the benefits of grid computing to provide decision-makers the ability to run more complex risk analysis and simulations faster than ever before."