SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 29 – Panasas, Inc., the leader in high performance parallel storage for technical computing applications and big data workloads, today announced that ATK (Alliant Techsystems, Inc.), has standardized on Panasas ActiveStor to speed innovation and reduce cost in its demanding research, and product performance simulation processes. ATK is the world's top producer of rocket propulsion systems and a leading supplier of military and commercial aircraft structures.

Supported by its high performance computing (HPC) center used by multiple business units across 12 US locations, ATK's engineers and scientists employ advanced computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools for a broad range of complex design and simulation applications. ActiveStor delivers high performance and massive scalable capacity for ATK's design work flows, including: combustion modeling, computational fluid dynamics, mechanical design and flight simulation, all within a single, unified global namespace. Industry-leading applications from software vendors such as CD-adapco, ANSYS and Simulia are optimized to seamlessly work with Panasas storage, along with several in-house and government lab codes.

"It is crucial that ATK engineers use state-of-the art systems in order to support our research and product design applications at the highest levels of performance and uptime," said Ramesh Krishnan , senior staff engineer, engineering process and tools at ATK Aerospace. "Panasas ActiveStor speeds our design and simulation processes, saving us significant time and money."

The center previously managed its data via a GPFS-based parallel file system, and while parallel computing ideally suits ATK's demanding storage workloads, GPFS performance and reliability issues led ATK to explore alternative parallel architectures when it refreshed its Linux cluster. Because ATK efficiently manages its large HPC cluster with a small, dedicated support staff, performance, reliability, ease-of-use and plug-and-play simplicity were key considerations.

"Panasas balances ease-of-use, extreme performance, scalable capacity and workload flexibility to deliver an ideal storage solution for commercial HPC environments like ATK Aerospace," said Barbara Murphy , chief marketing officer at Panasas. "By shortening time-to-design and eliminating expensive physical modeling with high fidelity, computer-aided simulation, Panasas customers realize significant cost benefits. In addition, by delivering a highly reliable, high-performance storage platform, Panasas ensures that engineers and scientists can focus on creating value, rather than on cluster management."

"I love Panasas storage because our users don't even notice it's there," said Nate Fuhriman , system administrator at ATK. "It's what storage should be – something you don't have to think about. Regardless of how hard we push it, it just keeps doing what it's supposed to."

About ATK

ATK Aerospace Group is the world's top producer of solid rocket propulsion systems and a leading supplier of military and commercial aircraft structures. It also specializes in small and micro-satellites; satellite components and subsystems; lightweight space deployables and solar arrays; low-cost, quick to market launch solutions; flares and decoys; and energetic materials and related technologies. The group also has extensive experience supporting human and space payload missions.

ATK Defense Group is an industry leader in ammunition, precision and strike weapons, missile-warning solutions, and tactical rocket motors across air, sea and land-based systems. The group is the largest U.S. producer of small-caliber ammunition, as well as a leading producer of medium- and large-caliber ammunition and medium-caliber gun systems. ATK Defense Group develops advanced capabilities for missile-defense interceptors, fuzing and warheads, weaponized special-mission aircraft, and propulsion/controls. The group also brings extensive experience and expertise in defense facility management and modernization.

About Panasas

Panasas, Inc., the leader in high performance parallel storage for technical computing applications and big data workloads, enables customers to rapidly solve complex computing problems, speed innovation and accelerate new product introduction. All Panasas storage products leverage the patented PanFS storage operating system to deliver superior performance, data protection, scalability and manageability. Panasas systems are optimized for demanding storage environments in the bioscience, energy, finance, government, manufacturing, and university markets.

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Source: Panasas