Better alternative to “cold storage” promises to keep data accessible
to improve research
Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los
Alamos) are researching a new storage tier to enable massive data
archiving for supercomputing. The joint effort is aimed at determining
innovative new ways to keep massive amounts of stored data available for
rapid access, while also minimizing power consumption and improving the
quality of data-driven research.
Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Seagate and Los
Alamos are working together on power-managed disk and software solutions
for deep data archiving, which represents one of the biggest challenges
faced by organizations that must juggle increasingly massive amounts of
data using very little additional energy.
“We see huge opportunities to bring power-aware cold storage to the
market as organizations—including and beyond the Department of
Energy—seek new ways to address data storage in resourceful ways,” said
Gary Grider, division leader of high-performance computing (HPC) at Los
Alamos.
Typically, organizations using HPC systems must migrate their data from
fast parallel-file systems to slower, more cost-efficient “cold” storage
technologies. This approach, however, is problematic for organizations
that require frequent access to research data, because that data tends
to reside on static media, which is slow to access and could jeopardize
the quality of research—especially when real-time analysis is critical.
The new dynamic storage research project will leverage the technology
behind Seagate’s recently released ClusterStor® A200 system.
This system uses automated, policy-driven hierarchical storage
management to non-disruptively migrate data off expensive primary
storage tiers while keeping it online for fast retrieval, which
significantly reduces costs in time and operations. High-density,
power-managed prototype disks are intended be a key element of the
research program.
This is the first of several projects Los Alamos and Seagate are
planning to collaborate on to enhance, develop, and deploy cutting-edge
solutions for some of the most challenging HPC storage problems. The
organizations already have a long-standing relationship, with Seagate
providing storage for the national laboratory’s Trinity supercomputer.
The supercomputer, which will soon conduct simulations crucial for
national security, relies on the Cray Sonexion 2000 system Powered by
Seagate for its scale-out storage capabilities.
“Los Alamos is pushing the frontier of high-performance computing,
building systems to solve the most complex technical problems,” said Ken
Claffey, vice president and general manager, Seagate HPC systems
business. “This new collaboration will allow us to explore advanced data
archiving methods at the mission-critical government level, which could
then influence big data in broader enterprise applications as well.”
The archiving research program could result in future products that meet
the deep-archiving storage needs of industries such as cloud providers,
weather modeling, financial services, life sciences, and media and
entertainment.
“Seagate’s collaboration with Los Alamos exemplifies the technology
innovations we are helping drive through unique federal
partnerships—particularly in the national laboratory and intelligence
communities,” said Deb Oliver, president, Seagate government solutions.
“Federal agencies are on the frontlines of today’s data management
challenges, and partnerships like this will help us excel in engineering
new systems that not only meet their stringent demands, but can then be
put to broader use, as well.”
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution
engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated
by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel
National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, Inc. and URS
for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and
reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to
reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems
related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global
security concerns.
About Seagate
Seagate creates space for the human experience by innovating how data is
stored, shared, and used. Learn more at www.seagate.com.
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©2016 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in
the United States of America. Seagate, Seagate Technology, ClusterStor
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