University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Adds 10PB of Panasas Storage

Panasas, Inc. expanded its 13-year relationship with the University of Minnesota’s Supercomputing Institute (MSI) to supply a new gen of parallel storage systems.

As its researchers push further into the fields of bioinformatics, AI and ML, MSI plans to upgrade both the capacity and the performance of its cluster storage systems. To achieve this goal, the university is starting by updating the existing Panasas parallel storage system to the next-gen Panasas Ultra hardware. This will deliver approximately 10PB of new capacity, representing a net increase of 5PB that will better support a variety of data-intensive research initiatives. Alongside the Panasas storage upgrades, the capacity of MSI’s ceph-based tier-2 storage, built using HPE hardware, will also be increased by 5PB.

“The Panasas partnership gives us access to the kind of high-performance computing technology that is critical to tackle an increasing variety of sophisticated use cases with MSI’s ‘Agate’ cluster,” said Jim Wigenbusch, director of research computing, UMN. “This long-term partnership has provided our researchers with the top-flight technology and technical support they need.“

“MSI/UMN has bought and installed every gen of Panasas ActveStor over the 13 years that we’ve worked together,” said Panasas COO, Brian Peterson. “I’m very proud of this agreement – a testament to our long-term partnership. We are fully committed to helping the university by supporting their efforts with the technology they need to advance research.“