Secure and Efficient Data Storage
New Configuration Increases Performance of High-Density Storage Solution
2nd August 2002 (NISER)
By Gopal Nair

SGI recently announced the availability of a 2GB configuration for the SGI Total Performance 9100 (TP9100) storage array that now offers increased performance in an innovative high-density design, providing the bandwidth and capacity to tackle the world's toughest data access problems. The flexibility of the SGI TP9100 storage system's unique high-performance 2Gb Fibre Channel architecture allows it to be tailored for high-availability, high-performance, or low-cost entry-level requirements.

"The size of data sets is increasing exponentially and as a result companies are having a harder time storing and managing their data," said Bob Murphy, marketing manager, SGI Storage Solutions. "The SGI TP9100 storage system further extends our storage capability to meet those needs by delivering very compelling performance and availability in a flexible, high-density form factor, helping customers manages their data more efficiently and inexpensively."

The SGI TP9100 Fibre Channel storage system comes in RAID and JBOD configurations to meet the variable needs of SGI's customers in the media, imaging, sciences, manufacturing and energy fields. The 2Gb TP9100 can house 16 2Gb Fibre Channel drives, providing over a terabyte of capacity using 73GB drives, in just three standard units (5.25 inches) of rack space. The 2Gb TP9100 storage system comes in a desk side tower configuration housing up to 16 disks and a rack-mounted configuration housing up to 192 disks-or 14TB using 73GB drives-in a single 38-unit standard rack.

Additionally, comprehensive storage management is supplied with an easy-to-use Web interface based on Java. The SGI TP9100 2Gb Fibre Channel storage array, equipped with one RAID controller and 72GB of storage (four 18GB disks), starts at under USD22,000.

SGI's Pioneering Involvement in Grid Computing Enhanced by GGF Membership

SGI also announced that it has become a Platinum Sponsoring Member of the Global Grid Forum (GGF), the international organisation dedicated to the research and implementation of grid computing strategies and technologies in universities, private industry and government settings worldwide.

GGF members set the standards, create the operational protocols, develop interoperable middleware and promote the growth of networked computing models. As a new Platinum Sponsor of the GGF, SGI scientists and researchers will be actively participating in the working groups that will convene during the next international GGF conference, GGF5, taking place next week in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 21-24.

"We're proud and very excited to join the Global Grid Forum as a Platinum Sponsoring Member, and we look forward to making a major contribution to the further development of grid computing," said business development director Walter Stewart, coordinator of SGI's grid strategy. "SGI provided the underlying hardware for the first-ever demonstration of grid computing, and today, SGI products and technologies are uniquely positioned to maximize the benefits afforded by this important model for access to diverse computational, visualization and data management resources."

On the security aspects of data storage, Walter added, "There are two sides of the problem: security of the system by itself, and security of the data in transit among multiple locations (possibly using the grid as interconnection fabric)."

He went on to say, "With the security of the system, the White Paper about Trusted Computing (http://www.sgi.com/software/irix6.5/datasheets.html) says: "A standard installation of IRIX 6.5 is a C2-level deployment. A B1-level deployment of IRIX is achieved by installing Trusted IRIX. Trusted IRIX confers the additional feature of mandatory access controls (also known as mandatory object sensitivity/integrity). The B1 and C2 levels fall within a range of security levels specified by the TCSEC Standard (also known as the Orange Book) from C1 (least secure) to A1 (most secure). With the security of the data in transit on grid nodes, there are two working groups on the issue, Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI) and Grid Security Policy (GSP), see http://www.globalgridforum.org/2_SEC/SEC.htm. Running the standard version of Globus, SGI has the security level on the grid as mandated by these two working groups. Additionally, encryption can be optionally used." Walter explained.

The grid-computing model gives scientists, researchers, engineers and medical personnel, among others, access to supercomputing resources without concern as to the physical location of the actual hardware, in much the same way that customers receive electrical power through common transformers regardless of their location. Participants in a grid network can share the raw computing capacities of a number of geographically diverse systems to solve one individual problem while harnessing the unique capabilities resident at specific individual installations to which they are interconnected.

The grid is a model for networked computing, not a distinct entity itself. Grid networks exist throughout the world, joining the computer power of select educational institutions, government research institutes, hospitals and, increasingly, corporations and intra-corporate sites.

Walter added, "Furthermore, with SGI computers and our OpenGL Vizserver software solution, advanced visualisation capabilities can now be accessed throughout the grid. Researchers can create a remote Visual Area Network-allowing individuals in distant locations who are connected to the same grid to view and manipulate complex graphics on a simple laptop computer, just as if they were working in the central computing facility."

"The ability for collaborative researchers to interact visually with their data-without actually having to send large amounts of data over the network-will be a key component in future grids. SGI leads in the deployment of visualization on the grid and in the management of the complex data required to enable remote collaborative visual experiences," he elaborated.

In a special event, taking place immediately before GGF5 begins, SGI will collaborate with the University of Manchester and one of its colleague academic institutions to demonstrate collaborative visualisation on the grid over the U.K. SuperJANET academic network. Research applications in medicine and design will be collaboratively engaged between Manchester, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, demonstrating the power of full collaborative visual engagement with data in remote sites.

Cardiff University in Wales recently purchased SGI servers to act as the backbone of its Distributed Visualisation Facility, designed to serve advanced graphics to remote departments at the university. In addition, SGI supercomputers are being used in the new Welsh e-Science (Grid) Centre headquartered at the University's Department of Computer Science, one of eight grid centres being established across the U.K. As a major centre for the development of a regional grid infrastructure, the university will introduce Visual Area Networking capabilities as part of its strategy to encourage collaboration between academia and industry.

In Cambridge, SGI Origin 3800 servers are at the computational heart of Professor Stephen Hawking's Cosmology Consortium, connecting via a grid network to other SGI computers at universities throughout the U.K. This grid network extends the capabilities of the consortium's COSMOS project, the most ambitious attempt ever to explore the properties of the universe, as it has existed since the Big Bang.

In the United States, NASA uses SGI Origin 3800 servers equipped with 1,024 processors running at 600 MHz as part of its grid installation at the NASA Ames Research Centre in California. The NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at NASA Ames is leading the effort to build and test NASA's Information Power Grid (IPG). The IPG will help NASA scientists collaborate to solve important problems facing the world in the 21st century, including research in the areas of aeronautics, earth sciences and life sciences.

The first public demonstration of the grid model, at Supercomputer 1997, was powered by SGI. Globus Toolkit the de facto standard middleware designed to control the grid's functionality, has always been developed on IRIX, SGI's highly stable and secure UNIX OS-based operating system.