SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 6 — Panasas, the leader in performance scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) today announced its collaboration with Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC), to use iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) rules-based open source software to propel data discovery in life science research. The joint solution combines Panasas ActiveStor storage, the HGST Active Archive System and iRODS Data Management Software to create an easily managed, high-performance multi-tier storage infrastructure that accelerates and optimizes data access, simulations and data analysis for research organizations working to improve medical discoveries through bioinformatics. Details on the collaboration can be found in the HGST “Speed Research Discovery” use case document.

The rate of progress in life sciences research is accelerating exponentially, leading to important advances that generate – and rely upon – an ever-expanding mountain of valuable data. Key to accelerating life science application performance is implementing a high-performance data infrastructure that eliminates computing and storage bottlenecks, enables better collaboration and preserves simplicity so researchers can focus their efforts on discovery. The joint Panasas-HGST solution consists of the following components:

Panasas ActiveStor Performance Scale-out NAS

• DirectFlow high-performance parallel access protocol for life sciences compute grid processing
• Scales from terabytes to more than 45PB in a single namespace and 360GB/s or 2.6M IOPS
• Extremely low opex with high availability via the mature sixth generation PanFS file system

HGST Active Archive System

• Simple to Deploy – Power and network connections are all you need
• Extreme Scale – Increase capacity and performance in line with data growth
• Highest Resiliency – up to 15 nines data durability
• Enterprise Security – end-to-end encryption security for in-flight and data at-rest protection
• Excellent TCO – Low acquisition cost, power/TB, high capacity and density

iRODS

• Workflow automation with rules engine
• Easy data discovery with metadata catalog
• Rules-based storage tiering between Panasas and HGST for efficient data placement

“Our solutions ultimately make data readily available for users, applications and analytics, helping to facilitate faster results and better decisions,” said Gary Lyng, senior director of marketing, Data Center Systems at Western Digital. “We are excited to be working with Panasas as the volume, velocity, variety and value of data generated by modern lab equipment along with varying application and workflow requirements make implementing the right solution all the more challenging – and we have the right solution.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Western Digital to deliver a storage solution that will help the world’s top researchers accelerate their discoveries,” said David Sallak, vice president, products and solutions at Panasas. “The data-intensive computing applications in life sciences require high performance with efficient, secure and cost-effective data management and together we are ready to meet those needs.”

For more information on how Panasas storage solutions drive research innovation, visit http://www.panasas.com/solutions/lifesciences. For more information on HGST, a Western Digital brand, visit https://www.hgst.com. For more information on the iRODS Consortium, visit http://irods.org/.

About Panasas

Panasas is the performance scale-out NAS leader for unstructured data, driving industry and research innovation by accelerating workflows and simplifying data management. Panasas ActiveStor appliances leverage the patented PanFS storage operating system and DirectFlow protocol to deliver performance and reliability at scale from an appliance that is as easy to manage as it is fast to deploy. Panasas storage is optimized for the most demanding workloads in life sciences, manufacturing, media and entertainment, energy, government as well as education environments, and has been deployed in more than 50 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.panasas.com.

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Source: Panasas