University of Florida Implements DDN Storage

DDN (DataDirect Networks, Inc.) announced its A³I AI400X all-NVME flash storage system will help amplify capabilities of the University of Florida (UF) HPC HiPerGator to make it the world’s fastest AI HPC in academia.

Building on DDN’s longstanding partnership with UF, this third-gen HiPerGator will integrate 10 DDN AI400X all-flash appliances to ensure maximum productivity of the 140 NVIDIA DGXA100 systems that are at the center of this AI-centric HPC and data center.

DDN storage systems are designed to deliver flexibility, speed at any scale and data insight for unified AI and deep learning workflows. Recent enhancements to meta data performance and data access capabilities have further advanced the ability of A³I to serve as the universal hub for the UF’s AI data.

The university has a mission to ensure that every student across every discipline has the knowledge of what AI is and how to use it in their area of expertise upon graduation. From religion to agriculture, and liberal arts to engineering, every student will have worked with the AI curriculum and will be able to apply that knowledge to advance the field they are studying in. With performance of a 70 petaflops, UF is creating a tool that will advance the goals of the university to make AI a pervasive component across all schools and research, boosting the university among AI leaders.

“AI will transform our society in the years to come and our tools must evolve to meet the demands of this new era,” said Erik Deumens, director of IT, UF. “Advancing our efforts to integrate AI across curriculum, improve research and empower students, as well as drive breakthroughs and discoveries are highly dependent on productive computing and efficient data systems, like those from DDN. We have a history of success with DDN storage systems powering our HPC computing and anticipate similar high productivity for our AI workloads.“

DDN A³I storage architectures, specifically the AI400X when paired with the DGX A100 systems, optimize the performance of analytics, training and inference workloads, as well as centralize AI infrastructure and deliver an optimized data path to maximize utilization of computing resources. The integrated and tested SuperPOD architecture will strengthen UF research potential through access to AI training and tools, ultimately addressing some of the most challenging global plights, like rising sea ocean levels, food insecurity, aging populations.

“DDN is proud to serve as the trusted Intelligent Infrastructure storage provider for the University of Florida, ultimately progressing UF’s vision of being a national leader and blueprint for AI progression and success,” said James Coomer, SVP of products, DDN. “DDN has a 20-year history of providing optimized solutions for academic research institutions, and now in collaboration with NVIDIA and the SuperPOD architecture, we are positioned to amplify UF’s standing among AI leadership, providing accelerated time to new discovery and innovation.“

The HiPerGator system, once deployed this winter, will consist of 4PB of storage to feed the 140 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, which contain 1,120 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs, with data flowing through NVIDIA Mellanox HDR 200Gb/s IB network.

More about A³I and SuperPOD