German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) Opts for StrongBox

StrongBox Data Solutions, Inc. (SBDS) was awarded a 5-year contract to implement a data management system for the German Climate Computing Center (Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum DKRZ), to expand the center’s critical climate science research data services.

The project will be driven by SBDS’s StrongLink software, and will replace the existing HPSS HSM with a system based upon open standard LTFS and S3, providing researchers with access to 150PB of legacy research data. In addition, StrongLink will also automate multi-tier storage workflows, virtualizing flash, disk, and LTFS tape to support at least 120PB per year of new HPC research data flows.

Leveraging StrongLink’s metadata-driven workflow engines, the system will enable DKRZ to maintain daily production access to all data, even after the HPSS system has been decommissioned. Users will continue to access data as before, with StrongLink presenting a normalized view of all data across all storage types.

“This new system will enable DKRZ to expand and modernize essential data services to our research community, while also seamlessly transitioning to a new open-standard platform that can grow as we do.” said Prof. Thomas Ludwig, CEO, DKRZ. “This will provide a solid foundation to ensure researchers have on-going access to the critical data needed for climate modeling and improved climate projections.“

StrongLink will be deployed in a scale-out architecture to prioritize 120PB per year in front side production workflows between existing Tier-0 HPC storage and the new multi-tier system. To do this, its metadata-driven workflow engines will virtualize 1PB of new tier-1 cache, and the 5 legacy tier-2 tape libraries, automating both day-to-day tiering operations plus the background HPSS-to-LTFS migration of 150PB of existing data. In all, tape IO will be parallelized across 90 tape drives in the 5 libraries with together more than 75.000 media slots.

“StrongLink was designed to provide customers like DKRZ with a vendor-neutral platform that could seamlessly automate data management and high speed data movement across otherwise incompatible storage types at any scale,” said Floyd Christofferson, CEO, StrongBox. “As DKRZ will increase its HPC power, their data needs continue to grow to advance cutting edge climate science research. We are thrilled to assist in this important work.“

The installation, configuration and project management for the new DKRZ data management system will be provided by Cristie Data GmbH, a backup and DR solutions company based in Niedernberg, Germany. This company will also provide integration services for all of the hardware needed for the project, including servers for StrongLink software, 1PB of tier-1 storage, and all networking and other components.