UMBC Researchers Analyze Big Data With The Dell | Terascala® HPC Storage Solution

Massive Data Sets from NASA are Constantly Being Processed

Boston, MA (PRWEB) - Terascala, the industry leader in High Performance Computing (HPC) storage management software, today announced that its TeraOS software manages the Lustre®-based parallel storage system at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) HPC Facility (HPCF). Terascala’s certified software stack monitors the health and performance of the storage appliance and raises alerts, so that bottlenecks can be eliminated. UMBC faculty and researchers count on the Dell | Terascala HPC storage solution for raw bandwidth and high IOPS. In the future, UMBC infrastructure thought leaders plan to consolidate faculty and students, who are involved in applicable research, on the fast, Lustre-based storage appliance and thereby move away from slower, scale-out enterprise storage.

Immense data sets are being funneled by NASA to UMBC from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), which is a satellite instrument that measures infrared radiation emitted by the earth's surface and atmosphere. The measured radiances are sensitive to a host of geophysical variables, including atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, surface temperature, cloud density, and a range of gases including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide. Over time, AIRS has produced a fourteen-year record of the earth; this Big Data is crucial for understanding and measuring climate change.

“UMBC is developing new, innovative methods to data mine satellite measurements and optimally measure very small changes in climate, especially when averaged over the globe,” stated Dr. L. Larrabee Strow, research professor of physics at UMBC. “These methods are feasible only if the data can be quickly accessed. The high performance Lustre storage system at UMBC makes it possible.”

“Terascala-powered appliances are turnkey, which has kept our total cost of ownership low, compared to rolling our own Lustre and hiring staff to support a large system,” explained Damian Doyle, director of enterprise infrastructure and support. “If any issues arise, the appliance phones home to Terascala support to remediate in the background—without service interruption. We have been very pleased with the reliability and plan to expand the Lustre use model across HPCF.”

“UMBC is a great example of both using and developing new Big Data analytics,” declared Alan Swahn, Terascala's vice president of marketing. “Their exploration and analysis will help us better understand climate change on a planetary scale.”

About Terascala
Terascala—the High Performance Computing (HPC) storage management company—has pioneered software that lowers total cost of ownership by managing and optimizing data, performance, and reliability. Savings are quickly realized through minimizing downtime, moving data very fast between scratch and inexpensive backup storage, and optimizing workload throughput. The company’s TeraOS software provides system-level high availability to reduce costly degraded performance and downtime. It integrates workload, network, storage, and file system monitoring, analysis, pre-emptive failure alerts, and fast failover. Terascala’s real-time analysis and phone-home support keep these highly complex systems up and running at peak performance. Support costs are minimized with no HPC or parallel file system expertise required.

About UMBC
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a dynamic public research university with a deep commitment to innovative teaching, leading-edge research, and supportive community that empowers and inspires inquisitive minds. U.S. News & World Report has named UMBC a national leader in both innovation and undergraduate teaching. Times Higher Education recognizes UMBC as one of the world's top 100 young universities for strong research, innovation, and an international outlook. UMBC's government and industry partnerships advancing entrepreneurship, workforce training, K–16 education, and technology commercialization contribute to the state's economic development. More than 100 technology, bioscience, and research companies and organizations are located at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park, which is also home to Maryland's first Cyber Incubator.

Terascala and the Terascala logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Terascala, Inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. All other brands, products, or service names may be trademarks or property of their respective holders.