Panasas Announces Next Generation Storage Cluster for Linux Clusters

Panasas, Inc., announced the next generation of its Panasas ActiveScale Storage ClusterTM, which simplifies deployment, accelerates performance and improves business continuity for Linux clusters. The new additions to the Panasas Storage Cluster address the demands of commercial customers by providing maximum return on investment in Linux cluster computing and reducing overall total cost of ownership (TCO). The newest additions to the Panasas Storage Cluster include simplified deployment and integration, accelerated performance, and improved business continuity. The storage cluster enables customers to maximize IT investments, simplify the management of heterogeneous server environments, and make the best use of limited IT floor space.

The new three, five, and 10-shelf rack systems ship in a pre-configured and pre-wired 42U cabinet, providing the broadest support of server, processor, and networking platforms to ensure seamless integration. Panasas has extended its industry-leading performance with a 50 percent increase in single-client data throughput using the Panasas DirectFLOW parallel I/O protocol. To maximize cluster uptime and availability, Panasas now enables sharing of data reconstruction workloads across its DirectorBlades, completing reconstruction of failed disk drives up to 10X faster than traditional RAID solutions and minimizing the impact of disk failures on the performance and reliability of the storage system. The parallel volume copy application enables the efficient migration of large amounts of data from legacy storage systems while maximizing the availability of the Panasas storage for use in processing cluster jobs. Customers can create a pipeline of jobs to be processed using the high throughput provided by the Panasas storage system, maximizing utilization of their compute cluster and leveraging their traditional storage systems for second tier or archival purposes.