High performance storage goes hand-in-hand with high performance computing. Your file access performance directly impacts your computational efficiency in many cases, as more and more codes require large input data sets and generate large quantities of output data.



HPC places unique performance and reliability demands on your storage solution. If your storage solution does not provide enough performance, your computation will be slowed, or even blocked while waiting for file access. If your storage solutions reliability is not high enough, you can lose computing time or even precious data.


Regrettably, storage is often an afterthought in many HPC designs. When processor speed, memory, and Interconnect considerations are the only design considerations for your next purchase, you run the risk of undermining the efficiency and reliability of your HPC solution by teaming it with an inadequate or poorly matched storage solution that becomes the performance bottleneck and limiting factor in system productivity.

 

Aspen can help you select the most cost effective storage components for your new system, balancing data access performance with the overall performance of your solution to achieve the best overall system performance for your investment.


To that end, Aspen teams with some of the best storage providers in the business to offer you the best solution for your specific storage needs. We partner with storage solution providers who provide distinct advantages, and are the industry leaders in their specialty areas. Our partner list includes:






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Which solution best fits your needs will depend on your applications mix and the other components used in your system design. Of course, your budget can predicate your storage performance characteristics as well. The best, and most cost effective, storage solution for your cluster may not be the fastest performing solution, but rather the storage solution that provides the best cost/performance ratio for your data requirements while most closely matching the performance characteristics and constraints of the your selected computational solution.

 

Is an internal RAID solution fast enough to serve your data requirements adequately? Do you need the advantages of a parallel file system? What about the complexities introduced by the need to administer and performance tune a parallel file system? Perhaps a hardened server solution such as Terascala can best fill your needs. Which parallel file system is the best one for your needs, specific circumstances, and data access patterns? Would an accelerated NFS solution such as BlueArc provide the best cost/performance ratio and ease of maintenance for you, or would a hybrid software/hardware solution such as Panasas best fit your needs? Or is performance and scaling in direct attached storage, such as Data Direct Networks what is needed? What about tiered storage? Migration? Is archiving needed? Disaster recovery? Replication? What are your future expansion plans or goals? The plethora of design choices can be daunting, and it can be easy to make the wrong decision.

 

Your Aspen Sales engineer is here to answer these types of questions, and to help you design your solution. We use best of breed components and partners, and will work closely with you to understand your specific needs and desires while presenting the different options and their trade-offs, resulting in the best system design for you.





Contact Aspen Systems sales at 1-800-992-9242 for more information about storage solutions and your needs today!

 

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