Raising the performance and capacity bar for AI/HPC Hybrid Storage Management

Panasas®has introduced PanFS® 10, the newest release of its flagship parallel file system. PanFS 10, which powers Panasas’ ActiveStor® portfolio of storage appliances, utilises a unique shared-nothing architecture that now supports Seagate® Exos® 2X18 with MACH2™ dual-actuator technology, enabling up to double the performance for the ActiveStor system. Additionally, PanFS 10 expands support for cloud workflows with S3 compatibility, allowing customers to seamlessly move AI/HPC workloads developed in the cloud to on premise datacentres for optimal performance management. The new PanFS 10 solutions will be showcased this week at SuperComputing 2023, Denver, CO, at Panasas booth #437.

“Our goal is to deliver tangible value to our customers, and we're thrilled to provide these new advancements with the PanFS 10 release,” said Ken Claffey, CEO at Panasas. “We understand that our customers' data environments demand greater performance and cost-efficiency coupled with storage solutions that are easy to install, configure, and manage at scale. We also know that in today's hybrid IT landscape, it's crucial that architectures facilitate the flexible deployment of HPC/AI applications and scale to support business growth. We won’t stop innovating and delivering reliable storage solutions to market that provide exceptional performance and flexibility at a competitive price point.”

Data is a differentiator for businesses. According to IDC, investments in AI are increasing, leading to a faster penetration of AI in enterprise workloads. The firm predicts that by 2025, a fifth of all worldwide computing infrastructure will be used to run AI applications. What began as project work in siloed systems across data centres has evolved fast, transitioning towards large clusters of the same type that are capable of supporting HPC. This is driving the need for a storage system that delivers the performance of HPC with the reliability and ease of use of an enterprise storage solution.

Bridging the storage technology gap; upping the ante on performance

Enterprises and researchers no longer have to compromise between performance and price, allowing them to serve their users more effectively while retaining control of costs. PanFS 10 plus ActiveStor Ultra combines the benefits of traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid-State Drives (SSDs) with Seagate MACH2 dual-actuator hard drive integration. Combining the large storage capacity of an HDD with MACH2 technology delivers up to 2x more performance for sequential data rates than standard hard drives, setting a new standard for hybrid storage infrastructure management.

“We’re setting a new performance/cost benchmark with the new PanFS 10 capabilities,” added Claffey. “With support for Seagate’s MACH2 dual-actuator drives, organisations can now benefit from twice the performance capacity without having to evaluate a cost-multiplier of using all-flash storage solutions, which prove costly as storage requirements for emerging workloads expand.”

With many organisations developing AI applications in the cloud, the need to create, access, and update these data assets puts an enormous burden on storage infrastructures. PanFS 10 with S3 cloud-first protocol integration supports cloud-developed tools and applications. This provides enhanced metadata and IOPS performance. With support for storage workloads managed across datacentres on-premises, at the edge, and in the cloud, data can seamlessly move to whichever workload needs it the most, reliably and cost-effectively.

"Pairing complementary technologies from leading storage innovators is a powerful path to advanced performance, usability, and TCO,” said Jason Zimmerman, senior director, product line management for Seagate. “Adding software support for Seagate’s MACH2 dual-actuator hard drives in Panasas’ ActiveStor Ultra platform delivers a powerful solution that offers an impressive balance between performance and economics.”