STORAGE

Deere & Company's Moline, Illinois Technology Center has completed the implementation of a storage solution from Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) that dramatically speeds product design processes. With engineering and design teams working in multiple operating environments, data consolidation and management were key factors in the design of Deere's recently updated Center. Deere has implemented an SGI shared filesystem storage area network (SAN) solution to create instant and concurrent access to data files. The Moline Technology Center uses SGI storage, computing, and visualization technologies, along with technologies from a number of other vendors, to help shape tomorrow's products. The SGI InfiniteStorage SAN solution eliminates time-consuming file and data transfers between these multiple computing platforms and operating systems, reduces the need to store duplicate files, and frees Deere to choose among multiple storage vendors, reducing hardware acquisition costs. Product design engineers, who use the Center's high-performance computing (HPC) and immersive visualization facilities now have fast, concurrent access to data and applications on systems in the facility to speed the design process, reduce time to market and provide a distinct competitive advantage for John Deere. The SAN includes SGI(R) InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS, which enables the Center to preserve its intellectual property and extend the life of its legacy SGI and Sun servers by giving users fast, concurrent access to files on all systems. SGI CXFS shared filesystem has also enabled the Center to make its users more productive. With the implementation of CXFS Sun Solaris Client, Deere design engineers who need to access applications and data on the server can now do so directly instead of making NFS or FTP file transfers, which involved wait times, file copies, heavier network traffic, and duplicate storage requirements. "Storage utilization was the key factor in choosing this technology," says Dave Marshall, Infrastructure Analyst, Deere & Company. "We needed more disk space, and we could add more storage to each system or go with CXFS on the SAN, store the data in one place, and access it from both SGI systems and the Sun system. We chose CXFS, which also enables us to buy the fastest drives available without having to match them to a particular system or application. We're not tied to any vendor or model when we buy storage capacity." "Before we implemented CXFS, engineers would have to think about what system they were logging into to look for the data they needed," says Marshall. "Many times, they would need to be on another platform to find what they were looking for and then have to change to an auto mounted directory or transfer the data using FTP, or a similar protocol, on a slower network connection. Now they can connect to one of our three systems, and the filesystems are in the same place. They go to the directory, and everything is there. The access speed is great. It's just like using local filesystems -- you don't even notice it. There's no more waiting for transfers and downloads." Engineers from John Deere facilities worldwide use the Center's HPC resources to refine models of products that can range from leaf-blowers to timber harvesters. Engineers at the Moline facility can store models on the SAN and display them in the Center's cave-style display environment for visualization to check fit and finish or operating characteristics. SGI Professional Services implemented the Center's SAN solution, which currently links 2.6 terabytes of storage across an eight-processor SGI Origin server, a Sun Enterprise 450 server, and an SGI Onyx visualization system driving an immersive display environment. SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS, including CXFS Sun Solaris Client, gives engineers instant, concurrent access to applications and files on all three systems.