Northern Arizona University Deploys NexentaStor

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 13 — Nexenta, the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS), today announced Northern Arizona University (NAU) has deployed NexentaStor to handle the extensive datasets involved in research conducted at the university.

NAU faculty and graduate students are renowned for their research in astronomy, bioinformatics, computational chemistry, cropland mapping, human microbiome analysis and microbial genomics—all generating big data items such as genome maps, Landsat images and complex chemistry data sets. As these data sets grew over the years, they exceeded the capacity and compute power of NAU’s individual research labs, so the High-Performance Computing (HPC) team led by Research Administrator, Christopher Coffey, centralized compute and storage to better assist researchers with their work.

Coffey said he reviewed a variety of storage options, including SAN-based RAID systems, and roll-your-own ZFS solutions. His goal was to find one complementary to the university’s existing HPC system, which consists of Dell servers and Mellanox’s InfiniBand/Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) switches with Connect X3 cards.

“No other option we looked at surpassed Nexenta’s features, flexibility and ZFS support,” said Coffey. “Since implementation of the NexentaStor appliance, it’s been hands off, requiring minimal maintenance, which is a big deal for us.”

NexentaStor delivers archival/intermediate storage with compression, and achieves petabyte-scale active archives. Its snapshots capability enables the retrieval of original or lost files locally via Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB) object services from around the campus. In addition, the system removes the need for prep steps prior to moving data into place for analysis.

Coffey says he and his team value the compression achievable from Nexenta’s solution because they’re saving money by reducing the footprint of the datasets. The virtual nature of the SDS extends the purchased physical storage beyond what is ordinarily possible, according to Coffey.

“Large research universities epitomize today’s diverse, complex and performance-intensive organizations that crave IT systems with storage built to flexibly respond to any scenario, including unforeseen changes,” said Tarkan Maner, Chairman and CEO of Nexenta Systems. “NAU’s HPC team chose Nexenta because our approach to SDS meets their needs today and exceeds their expectations going forward.”

Please refer to the NAU HPC Case Study for more implementation details.

About Nexenta

Nexenta is the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS) with 6,000+ customers, 400+ partners, 42 patents, and more than 1,500 petabytes of storage under management. Nexenta uniquely integrates deep software-only “Open Source” collaboration with one of the largest and most vibrant Open Source communities (46,000 members) and a comprehensive vision around a commodity hardware-centric “Software-Defined Storage” innovation enabling ANY app, cloud platform and protocol. Nexenta is 100% Software-based; and 100% hardware-, protocol-, cloud platform-, and app-agnostic providing organizations with Total Freedom protecting them against punitive “vendor-lock-in”, “vendor-bait-n-switch”, and “vendor-rip-n-replace” gimmicks. Nexenta provides enterprises with the “true” benefits of “true” Software-Defined Everything-centric Cloud Computing – from data centers to end users; from the infrastructure to apps. Nexenta enables everyday apps from rich media-driven Social Living to Mobility; from the Internet of Things to Big Data; from OpenStack and CloudStack to Do-It-Yourself Cloud deployments – for all types of Clouds – Private, Public, and Hybrid. Founded around an “Open Source” platform and industry-disrupting vision, Nexenta delivers its award- and patent-winning software-only unified storage management solutions along with enterprise-scale 24×7 – around the globe – All Love – service and support with a global partner network, including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Docker, HPE, Lenovo, Quanta, SanDisk, Seagate, Supermicro, VMware, Western Digital, Wipro, and many others. Nexenta: 100% Software. Total Freedom. All Love.

Source: Nexenta