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High-Performance Computing (HPC) differs dramatically from enterprise computing. Enterprise computing involves small file size movements which facilitate database, CRM, ERP, and supply chain management applications. On the contrary, HPC has large data sets, which run parallel across numerous servers to facilitate computationally intensive applications such as Monte Carlo simulations, CAE, Seismic Data Processing, computational fluid dynamics, optical design and 3D simulations. Without storage explicitly designed for HPC, the expensive servers starve for data and processing is delayed. Set to address such a situation is OSNEXUS offering its QuantaStor Software Defined- Storage (SDS) platform, which provides High-Performance Computing storage capabilities that scale with its unique storage grid architecture. “QuantaStor SDS provides IT architects with the latest in storage software and hardware capabilities so that any HPC solution can be designed specifically to meet extreme workload and storage traffic needs,” says Steven Umbehocker, Founder and CEO of OSNEXUS.

QuantaStor SDS provides HPC storage capabilities to scale up and out with its grid architecture, for increased I/O and capacity requirements. Leveraging open source file systems and protocols including NFS, CIFS, SMB, iSCSI, and ZFS, QuantaStor allows fast access to the large file, block, and object storage across multiple nodes for fast and efficient pure performance, dedicated computational scratch or multi-petabyte result set storage applications.

QuantaStor offers scalable all-flash and hybrid options allowing storage to be divided up and moved between network shares and pools of storage that are all-flash or a hybrid mix of SSD and HDD for high-performance and high-capacity storage. All-flash configurations are designed to deliver maximum IOPS and throughput numbers for mission-critical HPC workloads and applications. QuantaStor hybrid SAN/ NAS configurations combine HDD with SSD for read and write performance acceleration are ideal for HPC workloads. “We regularly test the latest hardware to bring the fastest storage configurations to HPC organizations,” says Umbehocker.

OSNEXUS’ QuantaStor SDS platform provides some of the most advanced storage system features HPC organizations need, including grid technology to link appliances together, support for Global Namespaces, next-generation networking hardware support, S3/SWIFT Object Storage, all-flash and hybrid storage configurations and end-to-end security features.

We regularly test the latest hardware to bring the fastest storage configurations to HPC organizations

Designed with an advanced storage grid technology, QuantaStor SDS enables QuantaStor storage appliances to be linked together and remotely managed as a single unit. With overall grid scalability to 64 appliances, QuantaStor SDS for HPC can also combine any number of network shares into any number of unique Global Namespaces so that storage grids can bring steady performance, accessibility, and reliability as HPC environments scale. Different network shares can also be placed on storage tiers to make it easy for end users to find their storage resources across HPC clusters.

Umbehocker states that the need for collaboration between all hardware systems and storage software is one of the biggest trends in HPC. QuantaStor’s control plane technology combines servers into a federated storage grid that can span sites and data centers, allowing users to control the entire grid from any appliance using the web-management interface, REST APIs, or the QuantaStor CLI. “QuantaStor has over 500 REST APIs, and new APIs are added consistently to QuantaStor keep up with customer needs,” Umbehocker adds.

With an aim to meet new age customers’ expectation level, the firm is introducing QuantaStor’s new scalability enhancements, where each QuantaStor appliance can now efficiently manage up to 500 devices, up from 200 devices in v4.4. In addition, the company’s advanced High-Availability failover system is highly parallelized to ensure reliable, secure, and fast failover of storage pools large and small. OSNEXUS has also added new advanced analytics to QuantaStor’s grid-scale web-based storage management interface which provides users with valuable information about I/O throughput, latency, and IOPS for both storage volumes and storage pools.