News

DataDirect Networks Unveils High-End Storage Appliance

• By David Ramel
• 06/14/2016

Big Data storage specialist DataDirect Networks today unveiled a new high-end Lustre-based storage appliance designed specifically for high-performance computing (HPC) and targeting data-intensive enterprises.

The DDN EXAScaler ES14K combines the company's fastest storage platform with Intel Enterprise Edition Lustre parallel file system -- Lustre 2.7 -- to deliver 4x the performance and up to 2x higher density than other offerings, the company said. Lustre is a distributed file system typically used for large-scale cluster computing.

The benefits of ES14K listed by the company include:

• 4x faster than other Lustre solutions on the market, providing up to 0.5 TB/second throughput in a single rack.
• Delivers latencies as low as 100μs for fast embedded file system and metadata speeds with a specially designed internal PCIe Gen3 fabric.
• Provides up to 2x more capacity per rack than competitive alternatives, delivering 7+PB in a single rack and scaling to 14+PB in a single appliance.
• Designed for flash -- all SSD configurations to deliver high storage IOPS, throughput and metadata performance. Leverage hybrid options to drive down the cost/GB while maintaining the performance of a flash tier.

"With more than a decade of experience in designing, installing and supporting Lustre-based storage, DDN is the most experienced Lustre provider and has worked closely with us over many years to design optimized Lustre-based storage systems," said Intel exec said Brent Gorda. "DDN's latest ES14K offering delivers a high-performing, high-density appliance for the HPC market built on Intel Enterprise Edition for Lustre.

"Lustre has strong and accelerating momentum in the market and is being widely adopted in the high-performance technical computing arena by national labs and universities, as well as traditional industries like research, oil and gas, manufacturing, and financial services. Intel is delighted to see DDN expand its Lustre offering with the new ES14K appliance, and we look forward to continuing our strong collaboration to deliver advanced, performance-driven technologies and solutions to customers worldwide."

DataDirect Networks didn't provide any pricing information on the new appliance, which is available immediately.