ACADEMIA

Supercomputing organizations with petabytes of data seek ways to aggregate enormous amounts of information. A petabyte of data will fill 10s of thousands of high-speed disks or thousands of tapes. Over its life cycle, data may need to be moved multiple times between disk arrays and automated tape libraries, and often multiple copies are needed for the most mission-critical data. To aid this market need, Spectra Logic's T-series tape libraries have been certified as compatible with IBM High Performance Storage System (HPSS). The IBM software solution helps supercomputing customers better handle large capacity requirements, improve transfer rates across multiple servers, and classify data to be stored. "HPSS is cluster software that enables multiple computers, high-speed storage networks, arrays of disks, and libraries of tapes to be combined into a unique highly parallel storage system for life-cycle data management," said Dick Watson, Co-chair of the HPSS Executive Committee. "HPSS combines a passion for data stewardship with the highest single-file and aggregate data rates in hierarchical disk-tape storage. HPSS enables its users to classify and store immense amounts of data with the most cost-effective components such as Spectra Logic's high capacity libraries." Spectra Logic's supercomputing clients include NASA Langley, Fermi National Laboratories, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. HPSS software, offered commercially by IBM Global services, supports Linux, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, and SGI Irix. "Through HPSS software and the Spectra T-series, our Federal supercomputing customers can now manage a single, distributed storage solution that shares all data resources," said Brian Grainger, director of federal and southeast commercial sales. "HPSS is easy to implement and scales across robotic libraries for incremental growth into the future."