Ambry Genetics Turns to EMC Isilon

EMC Corporation announced
that Ambry Genetics, a
commercial provider of clinical diagnostic and genomic services, has deployed
EMC Isilon scale-out NAS
to power its advanced gene sequencing operations, enabling Ambry to advance a
range of scientific pursuits while easily managing 100 percent data growth
annually.

Using Isilon’s X-Series combined with the EMC Isilon SnapShotIQ,
SmartConnect, and SmartQuotas software applications, Ambry Genetics has reduced big data management challenges and storage administration
costs, while accelerating data transfer rates and improving reliability for its
genetic sequencing project pipeline.

Customer
Benefits:

• Increased Performance: EMC Isilon
  scale-out NAS provided Ambry with the scalability and performance it needs to
  accelerate productivity.
• Reduced costs: Isilon handles Ambry
  Genetics’ storage needs at a fraction of the cost of previous systems; Isilon’s management reduces operational expenses in storage management,
  eliminates hourly contract storage administrators.

Previously,
Ambry Genetics had a traditional rack server with blades dedicated to storing
its bioinformatics and sequencing data. "We were adding more and more blades and filling up the rack fast, and
it was clear what we had wasn’t offering the scalability or performance we
needed," said Chris Medley , director of information technology at
Ambry Genetics. "We soon found we
could leverage an Isilon system to handle our storage needs at a fraction of
the cost, and that it will allow us to achieve some things, like data tiering,
we couldn’t have achieved before. With Isilon, we have a big storage solution
for a much smaller price."

The Isilon
scale-out NAS system is dedicated to the secure storage of
bioinformatics and sequencing data used with and generated by Illumina
sequencing platforms. By combining Illumina and Isilon technologies, Ambry
Genetics can provide sequencing services to its customers
without worrying about storage constraints.

Along with
the ease in scaling and management, Ambry Genetics chose Isilon for its storage
needs because of the reliability of Isilon’s clustered architecture and
its ability to linearly scale performance in-line with user demand. From
initial sequencing to management and analysis, the Isilon system has allowed
Ambry Genetics to reduce turnaround time.

"Genetic sequences are a critical piece of
our business and with new technology advancements, the amount of data it
generates is doubling every year," said Ardy Arianpour , vice
president of business development, Ambry Genetics. "With our launch of the Clinical Diagnostic Exome our data storage
management is key and Isilon has enabled us to reduce costs, while
simultaneously accelerating productivity, freeing our business to grow in step
with customer demand."

"Ambry Genetics is on the leading-edge
of today’s pursuit of personalized medicine," said Sam Grocott, vice
president of marketing, EMC Isilon. "By
using Isilon to accelerate their big data-intensive operations and slash
management costs, they’re setting best practices for all organizations looking
to make the most of their business-critical information."