Case Study: The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute achieves cost savings and scalable storage with SoftIron HyperDrive and Ceph

Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Unlocks Cost Savings and Scalability with SoftIron’s HyperDrive®

The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI) faced a challenge with its legacy infrastructure, which was hampering its ability to provide scalable, high-performance data storage solutions to its researchers. MSI was required to utilize Ceph software, but its complexity and the need for specialist technicians to manage it were significant obstacles to wider deployment. This led the institute to search for a more cost-effective and manageable solution.

SoftIron addressed this challenge with its HyperDrive storage appliance, which minimizes Ceph's complexities through an intuitive management interface while capitalizing on its flexibility. The solution provided MSI with a dynamic, scalable, and high-performance storage system. The implementation was more cost-effective than upgrading their legacy system and delivered measurable results, including a drastic reduction in power consumption from 600-800 watts to around 100 watts per unit and a 50% gain in storage density due to HyperDrive's 1U footprint.

The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute

Jeffrey McDonald

Associate Director for Operations