Science and Technology Facilities Council adopts Spectra Logic Tape Library to process and preserve scientific research data

Spectra Logic announced that the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has deployed a Spectra TFinity ExaScale Tape Library in its Scientific Data Centre facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, with an initial capacity of 65PB and the scalability to meet future data demands. 

The Spectra TFinity library was deployed to function as an active archive for storing and managing the vast volumes of data from CEDA (the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis), which includes a unique environmental science supercomputer and data facility known as JASMIN, and from IRIS, an e-Infrastructure for astronomy and particle physics research.

The new Spectra TFinity Tape Library has an initial capacity of 65PB, with 48 drive bays and a mixture of 17 open-standard LTO-8 tape drives and 16 IBM TS1160 tape drives. By implementing the latest tape drive technology in the new storage system, the SCD is prepared for future expansion. 

The Spectra TFinity ExaScale offers scalability with the speed necessary to meet requirements of demanding environments. From 50 to 40,680 TS1160 slots, users can store over 813.6PB (2.03EB compressed) of data with IBM TS1160 tape technology. With up to 144 drives, they can transfer data up to 207.4TB/hr (466.6TB/hr compressed) using TS1160 tape technology.

Deployed by some of the most recognized organizations in the world, the Spectra TFinity ExaScale provides maximum flexibility by allowing users to select the tape technology that is ideal for business. 

In addition to LTO tape technology, the Spectra TFinity Exascale is also compatible with IBM TS11X0 enterprise tape technology and Oracle T10000x enterprise tape technology, enabling all three in the same library. Current Spectra customers can upgrade to the new ExaScale and enjoy its innovations.

The TFinity tape library can handle simultaneous requests either by using multiple partitions in the library, or by having multiple robotic interface modules (RIMs) active in the same partition. Redundancies such as multiple tape access robots, power supplies, control paths and power distribution units mitigate failure and ensure the system will be able to run continuously, 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

Cray debuts ClusterStor E1000 storage to power data-driven workloads including AI, analytics, simulation and modeling

Cray, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company unveiled on Wednesday its Cray ClusterStor E1000 system, a new parallel storage platform for the exascale era. ClusterStor E1000 addresses the explosive growth of data from converged workloads and the need to access that data at improved speed, by offering an optimal balance of storage performance, efficiency and scalability, effectively eliminating job pipeline congestion caused by I/O bottlenecks. 

Cray ClusterStor E1000 systems will be available starting in the first quarter of next year. 

The next-generation global file storage system has already been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for use at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the first three US exascale supercomputers will be housed (respectively Aurora, Frontier and El Capitan).

With the introduction of the ClusterStor E1000 storage system, Cray has completed the re-architecture of its end-to-end infrastructure portfolio, which encompasses Cray Shasta supercomputers, Cray Slingshot interconnect, and the Cray software platform. With Cray’s next-generation end-to-end supercomputing architecture, available for any datacenter environment, customers around the world can unleash the full potential of their data.

Recognizing data access challenges presented by the exascale era, Cray’s ClusterStor E1000 enables organizations to achieve their research missions and business objectives faster. ClusterStor E1000 systems can deliver up to 1.6 terabytes per second and up to 50 million I/O operations per second per rack – more than double compared to other parallel storage systems in the market today.

The new system also deliver purpose-engineered end-to-end PCIe 4.0 storage controllers serve the maximum performance of the underlying storage media to the compute nodes and new intelligent Cray software, ClusterStor Data Services, allows customers to align the data flow with their specific workflow, meaning they can place the application data at the right time on the right storage media (SSD pool or HDD pool) in the file system.

An entry-level system starts at 30 gigabytes per second and at less than 60 terabytes usable capacity. Customers can start at the size dictated by their current needs and scale as those needs grow, with maximum architectural headroom for future growth. 

The ClusterStor E1000 storage system can connect to any HPC compute system that supports high speed networks like 200 Gbps Cray Slingshot, Infiniband EDR/HDR and 100/200 Gbps Ethernet.