Texas Advanced Computing Center Leverages IBRIX Fusion to Accelerate Application Processing.

BILLERICA, Mass. -- High Performance Computing Cluster Enabled to Pull Together Disparate NFS Servers into Sharable Environment; IBRIX Fusion Increases Application Processing Speed Over 10X

IBRIX(TM), Inc., inventor of the Segmented File System(TM), today announced that the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin has implemented IBRIX Fusion(TM), an enterprise-class, fully-integrated parallel file system solution for a high performance research computing cluster. TACC, a leading research center for advanced computational research, provides high-end computing, visualization, data storage, networking resources, and support services to researchers at UT Austin and throughout Texas and the United States. Since deploying IBRIX Fusion, TACC has seen a marked improvement in application speed and productivity, enabling the Center to provide superior performance to users.

"We have had an extremely positive experience with IBRIX both in terms of the initial installation and deployment and the impressive results we have seen with our increased application processing speed," said Tommy Minyard, manager and research associate for High Performance Computing at TACC. "With IBRIX Fusion we can run more simulations in a fixed time period and the improved file system performance provides better overall compute cluster utilization."

TACC works with numerous research communities that require intensive computational analysis, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) TeraGrid, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. By employing IBRIX Fusion on its 512 node Cray-Dell Linux cluster, TACC was able to compress the time required to run one cycle of a time-accurate turbulent computational fluid dynamics simulation with very intensive disk requirements from just under one hour to only five minutes, a performance increase of over 10X. And, due to the increased efficiency of the cluster using IBRIX Fusion, TACC was able to run finer grain simulations over much longer time periods, thereby refining the resolution and accuracy of the analysis.

"Organizations such as TACC leverage the capability of cluster computing architectures to solve very complex problems," said Shaji John, president and CEO of IBRIX, Inc. "The IBRIX Fusion software solution increases the efficiency of their compute infrastructure by eliminating input/output throughput bottlenecks thus enabling faster application performance and more accurate business decisions."

IBRIX Fusion Software Suite

IBRIX Fusion allows enterprise system administrators to build file systems that can scale to up to 16 petabytes of capacity in a single namespace, and provide up to one terabyte per second of aggregate input/output (I/O) throughput performance, independently and non-disruptively as the demands of the enterprise grow. IBRIX Fusion, a purely software-based solution, increases application performance, simplifies administration, and reduces total cost of ownership. IBRIX Fusion is hardware, network, and protocol independent and can be deployed as either a host-installed cluster file system solution or exported over network file system (NFS), common internet file system (CIFS), or other industry standard protocols as a scalable network attached storage (NAS) solution.

Components comprising the IBRIX Fusion Software Suite are:

--IBRIX FusionFS - A multi-purpose, scalable parallel file system that is equally efficient across a variety of I/O sizes and access patterns with full support for multi-node byte-range locking. IBRIX FusionFS delivers linear scalability on throughput from a single file system, single directory, or even a single file. The file system supports online file system expansion and the integrated Logical Volume Manager allows full flexibility in deploying and configuring a storage pool using any combination of storage area network (SAN)-attached or direct-attached storage (DAS). IBRIX FusionFS can be accessed from client computers using standard NFS and CIFS protocols, as well as the IBRIX FusionClient - an intelligent driver that delivers higher performance and balanced resource utilization. IBRIX FusionClient is supported on a variety of Linux kernels and distributions without any modifications to the kernel.

--IBRIX FusionHA - A complete High Availability clustering solution with component-level and active-active, server-to-server failover combined with Dynamic Load Balancing features. IBRIX FusionHA provides the full capability to monitor a variety of hardware and software elements, detect failures, and automatically transfer control to another server without loss of service. The Dynamic Load Balancing component allows system administrators to dynamically re-provision servers and storage within a single file system based upon imbalances in access patterns to achieve uniform loading and improved aggregate performance.

--IBRIX FusionManager - A comprehensive, intuitive, and easy-to-use interface for administering and monitoring IBRIX Fusion clusters and file systems. IBRIX FusionManager includes a full-featured, web-based graphical user interface (GUI) and a powerful, script-friendly, command line interface, both with complete online documentation.

Patented Segmented File System Architecture

File storage methods have traditionally relied upon an asymmetrical or monolithic approach, with a single server to manage the metadata for the entire file system or a tightly-coupled, symmetrical structure, with all file metadata distributed across all metadata servers. In contrast, IBRIX Fusion incorporates a loosely-coupled, distributed metadata architecture, under which metadata propagation and reconciliation no longer create bottlenecks. A key feature of the architecture is its ability to assemble up to thousands of file storage engines into an aggregated pool with linearly scalable performance and manageability, thus enabling enterprises to build a single file system with almost unlimited storage capacity and aggregate I/O throughput. The IBRIX Fusion architecture also features linearly increasing throughput as servers are added to the file system, enabling enterprises to harness the full performance capability of each incremental piece of hardware added. In addition, the segmented architecture is the foundation that makes construction of very large file systems practical, allowing the ability to perform maintenance or upgrades on parts of the file system while the rest of the namespace remains operational.

About IBRIX, Inc.

IBRIX(TM) delivers increased application performance to enterprise computing environments utilizing a unique, software-based parallel file system solution. Its patented Segmented File System(TM) is the basis for IBRIX Fusion(TM), a suite of software products that comprise the most scalable, economical, multi-purpose file system solution available for cluster computing, grid computing, and enterprise computing environments. IBRIX Fusion simplifies management, delivers maximum flexibility, and reduces total cost of ownership. The IBRIX Fusion Software Suite is available through leading OEMs. IBRIX is headquartered in Billerica, MA. For more information, please visit our website at www.ibrix.com.

IBRIX, IBRIX Fusion, and Segmented File System are trademarks of IBRIX, Inc. All other brands, products, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are associated.