University of South Florida Deploys DDN Storage

DataDirect Networks, Inc.
(DDN) announced
that the University of South Florida (USF) has
deployed DDN storage technology to power advanced research.

USF depends on the performance, density, and reliability of DDN’s modular
storage platform and the Lustre-based ExaScaler parallel file system solution
as the foundation of its centralized research computing storage strategy, which
helps USF rank ninth among universities worldwide in the number of U.S. patents
it generates.[Statistics from the Intellectual Property Owners Association] As part of this project, DDN and USF architected a system
which can scale to PT proportions and increase performance beyond 100GB/s to
support future University research ambitions.

"DDN’s leadership position in
massively scalable storage technology is complemented by the significant
parallel file system expertise we have developed over a decade," said
John Josephakis, SVP of Sales, HPC and
Life Sciences, DDN. "For more than
14 years, DDN has specialized in engineering highly-optimized systems for the
requirements of data-intensive environments like the University of South
Florida, and we are pleased to help them achieve nationally recognized insight
with our technology."

With this new resource, the USF can accelerate their computational simulation
in a number of data-intensive disciplines ranging from physics analysis,
molecular simulations, fluid dynamics and weather modeling from more than 40
research groups within the University.

"DDN’s reputation for technology and
quality preceded the company, in deploying this new resource we were also
pleased by the system’s low total cost of ownership at scale," said
Dan Majchrzak, University of South Florida Director of Research Computing.
"DDN’s technology and the deep
Lustre expertise of its staff are important assets for our high performance
computing (HPC) team and the University’s scientific agenda."

Moving forward, USF will rely on its DDN system to help support a data
visualization center that includes an 18-megapixel ultra-high resolution video
wall for viewing 3-D graphics and images that visually represent massive data
sets.