Beijing Genomics Institute Stores 1PB on Isilon IQ

Isilon Systems, Inc. announced that the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) at Shenzhen has deployed more than one petabyte (PB) of Isilon scale-out NAS to power one of the world’s largest DNA sequencing environments.

Working with one of China’s leading IT integrators, United Electronics Co., Ltd., BGI is using Isilon’s X-Series, featuring its OneFS operating system, to unify more than 100 Illumina Genome Analyzers onto a single, high performance, highly scalable, shared pool of storage. With Isilon IQ, BGI has achieved previously unattainable levels of data performance for its research team, increasing productivity across a vast array of initiatives to accelerate time-to-discovery, while reducing capital and operating expenses.

"The phrase ‘high performance’ doesn’t even begin to describe the rigid computing and data storage demands of BGI’s DNA sequencing environment, as its sheer size is beyond the capabilities of nearly all storage systems, traditional or otherwise," said Donghui Wang, Chairman, United Electronics Co. "However, Isilon was up to the task. With Isilon IQ, BGI has attained unprecedented levels of both concurrent and sequential I/O performance, while saving significant man hours and capital investment, creating immeasurable value for its operations."

BGI was founded in 1999, and has since grown to be the largest genomics research institute in Asia and the third-largest such institute in the world. Using the Isilon IQ 36000X and 72000X, BGI has unified 128 Illumina Genome Analyzers onto a single file system, streamlining data access across its many research applications to accelerate time-to-results. By consolidating its massive data stores onto a central storage resource, BGI has eliminated data fragmentation and performance bottlenecks within its DNA sequencing workflow, increasing computing performance, while reducing storage management time and costs.

"BGI is a world leader in genomic research, having played a critical role in the International Human Genome Project, the International Human HapMap Project and the fight against SARS," said Sam Grocott, vice president of marketing, Isilon Systems. "By using Isilon as the primary storage platform for its DNA sequencing operations, BGI is validating our compelling value proposition for next-generation genomic research, which is simply this – achieve results faster, and more accurately, at less cost."