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Go GPFS Go!

Published on May 13, 2013 by in Data management
GPFS

GPFS is IBM’s crown jewels hidden away and locked in the deepest darkest dungeon!

I read an article on the Register recently, written by storage expert Martin Glassborow who, when discussing IBM’s General Parallel File System suggested: “It’s a howitzer of a product ….yet in the decade-and-a-bit that I have been involved with it, IBM almost never sells it. Customers do buy it but really you have to know about it first; most IBM sales would have no idea where to start, nor even when it might be appropriate.”

Martin is obviously right, GPFS is IBM’s crown jewels hidden away and locked in the deepest darkest dungeon! IBM does have literally hundreds of thousands of customers though and we don’t always hear about them. Plus, for every SONAS or V7000U system that IBM has sold, they have GPFS in them; so unbeknown to the end user they are using GPFS!

We work in the HPC space and, as one of the commenters on the article rightly points out, if you’re in this market you’ll hardly ever find a cluster without GPFS [it is not always sites with multiple PetaBytes of data either, but sites with complex storage environments that require strong data management].

We have also taken GPFS to a number of customers outside of HPC to dozens of private sector organisations for example WRN, RMS, IMD, Smoke and Mirrors and Landmark Solutions. Plus, many academic institutes such as University of Edinburgh, Technium Pembrokeshire and the University of Westminster. Go GPFS Go!

 
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University of Central Lancashire Plugs HPC Skills Gap with OCF

Published on May 1, 2013 by in HPC, data processing
uclan

OCF provides cluster support services to UCLan, Durham University, media firm WRN, Proudman Oceanographic, Kings College London and Trinity College Dublin.

Our team has been chosen by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) to provide cluster management support services for its High Performance Computer (HPC) system. The OCF team is providing UCLan with strategic counsel and development of its HPC system in the absence of an in-house HPC manager, due to a shortage in the recruitment market.

Built by OCF in April 2010, the shared HPC system is used by a multi-disciplinary team of in-house scientists who can access the system via local work stations, compile simulation code in user accounts and, once processed by the HPC, view the resulting simulation locally.  More recently, other PhD students in the physiotherapy and design departments have joined access to the HPC system.  The University is in the process of making the HPC system available across its various departments. Read more…

 
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‘Data analytics’ growth trends into 2014

Published on April 4, 2013 by in Data analytics

The chart on the left demonstrates search volume during the past few years [back to 2005] for three keywords: “big data”, “big data analytics” and “data analytics”.

I stumbled across a fantastic new tool this week Google Trends which collates and analyses Google search data to create highly valuable ‘trends’ information. Given my new analytics business development role at OCF it appealed immediately!

The chart on the right [click for larger image] demonstrates search volume during the past few years [back to 2005] for three keywords: “big data”, “big data analytics” and “data analytics”. It also includes an element of forecast, which shows data analytics searches will continue on a steady upward curve into 2014.

It’s fascinating. Industry sectors like retail and financial services are mature markets for data analytics, which have long since established intelligent use of their data. However, I think the reason we’re seeing a trend towards people searching Google for data analytics is because other industries are now following in the footsteps of these pioneering industries. Manufacturing businesses for example are looking to use data analytics to assist predictive maintenance; police forces want support with fraud management; healthcare units need help to better understand regional demographics, resident trends and patient requirements. Putting it bluntly, organisations in other industry sectors are starting to wakeup to the potential benefits of data analytics.  Read more…