GOVERNMENT

Kognitio today announced that the National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) has deployed Kognitio's WX2 purpose-built database to handle the analytical processing of multiple terabytes of research data in order to improve human health and crop improvement through genome sequencing and analysis.

NCGR researchers who chose WX2 said they were impressed by Kognitio's recognition of and focus on the growing importance of bioinformatics, and the company's desire to play a leading role in enabling the next generation of genomic investigation.

"We realized that we needed a new database solution to increase the flexibility and the performance for our future plans," commented Dr. Ernest Retzel, Program Leader at NCGR. "After looking at various options, we were impressed by Kognitio's database technology, their understanding of the demands of organizations in the genomic space as well as their willingness to make our installation and deployment a success. We now have a solid partnership with Kognitio, and WX2 fits nicely into NCGR's growth plans that involve multiple new projects that will call for data volumes measured in tens to hundreds of terabytes ."

The NCGR team has already discovered the powerful advantages that WX2 offers; researchers say they are able to quickly load subject databases within minutes, as opposed to hours. Queries performed against the WX2 database return in one-eighth of the time when compared to other platforms.

"Technology has progressed to the point where the research that went into the initial Human Genome Project, which took hundreds of millions of dollars and several years to complete, can now be replicated within several months. Faster, more powerful tools like Kognitio's WX2 are at the core of that increase in power and reduction in time to results and overall cost," explained Neil Miller, Principal Software Engineer at NCGR

"The pace of data generation is exploding, and over the next twelve months we expect the amount of data that we need to analyze will expand at a rate of ten-fold or more," added Kathy Myers, Database Architect at NCGR. "We are delighted that WX2 gives us the ability to answer to the calls from the organization to conduct these analyses. With the ability to load and query multiple terabytes of data within the shortest timeframes, WX2 ensures that we keep the analytical output in line with the projected increases in data volumes."

"The throughput of Illumina Genome analysis instruments is increasing at least ten fold each year and NCGR is deploying additional Genome Analyzers in production sequencing each quarter. Data pipelining and analysis capabilities that scale cost-effectively with increasing sequence generation are critical to our continued growth," said John Speck, NCGR CFO and Vice President of Administration. "WX2 is the database of choice for our largest projects."

"Increasingly, the confluence of bioinformatics and mainstream information processing is delivering major opportunities for research institutions like NCGR and forward-thinking companies such as Kognitio," said John K. Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of North American Operations for Kognitio. "WX2 is well-positioned to enable investigating scientists to rapidly analyze enormous amounts of data, to peer into the core of genomics and discern new solutions. After learning about NCGR and its operational capabilities in the areas of bioinformatics and genome sequencing, Kognitio set out to and now has developed a partnership with the team at NCGR that will form a critical building block in the foundation of Kognitio's on-going efforts to be a leading player in the bioinformatics industry."

Now in its sixth generation, Kognitio WX2 is the a most mature analytical database of its type on the market today, capable of helping mid-sized and larger enterprises alike gain unprecedented analytical access to, and insight from, massive amounts of data, thus allowing them to remain ahead of their competitors. More than twenty years of development enables Kognitio WX2 users to reliably gain greater benefits in less time; by enabling users to query, in detail, vast amounts of granular data in just seconds, tests have shown WX2 consistently obtains results several times faster than competing data warehouse appliances and 10-60 times faster than typical software-only databases.

More information about the Kognitio WX2 purpose-built analytical database is available from the company's website.