Case Study: Utah State University achieves faster, more reliable academic research with Panasas ActiveStor

Utah State University Center for High Performance Computing Uses Panasas ActiveStor to Accelerate Academic Research

Utah State University’s Center for High Performance Computing faced growing demand from researchers that was straining its existing storage systems and limiting support for expanding academic research. The center needed a storage platform that could handle heavy HPC workloads, support applications like ANSYS FLUENT, and remain easy to manage with limited IT staff. Panasas ActiveStor with the PanFS parallel file system was selected to meet those needs.

Panasas implemented ActiveStor scale-out NAS appliances with integrated PanFS and provided technical support, enabling fast deployment and a smooth transition. The solution delivered strong reliability, better performance, and seamless scalability; storage capacity and throughput grew as additional shelves were added, and total capacity increased seven-fold from the initial installation. Users reported faster results for big-data workloads, and the system largely managed itself even during periods without a dedicated administrator.

Utah State University

Jiming Jin

Assistant Professor, Natural Resources Department