Case Study: University of Oxford achieves reliable high-performance computing for researchers with Panasas ActiveStor 14

Oxford University Uses Panasas® ActiveStor® to Deliver High Performance Computing to Researchers

The University of Oxford’s Advanced Research Computing (ARC) facility needed to improve the reliability, performance, and manageability of its 24/7 storage environment for high-performance computing. Its older NAS systems were struggling with uptime, load balancing, and performance under data-intensive workloads, which affected researchers’ confidence in the service. Panasas ActiveStor was chosen to support ARC’s diverse research communities and HPC infrastructure.

Panasas deployed four ActiveStor 14 shelves, creating a single high-performance storage pool with a global namespace, 330TB of raw capacity, and 265TB usable. The solution improved reliability, availability, and performance, restored user confidence, and now supports home directories, mid-term storage, and scratch space for I/O-intensive jobs.

University of Oxford

Steven Young

Head of Technical Services, ARC