WestGrid Selects SGI and YottaYotta for Remote Visualization and Geographic Data Grid Services

WestGrid (Western Canada Research Grid) is a $50-million projectto operate grid-enabled high performance computing and collaborationinfrastructure at institutions in Alberta and British Columbia. Itsresources are provided at no cost to researchers across Canada.Westgrid selected SGI and YottaYotta to deliver remote visualizationand geographic data grid services to Simon Fraser University (SFU) andthe University of Alberta (UofA).

"WestGrid has created an environment for world class computationalresearch with resources located at universities across WesternCanada," said Dr. Rob Simmonds, chief technology officer of WestGrid."The addition of the YottaYotta system greatly simplifies the task ofexploring massive data sets generated on computers located more than1,000 kilometers from our primary SGI visualization server."

Together, SGI and YottaYotta provide the capability to deploy asingle shared file system across thousands of kilometers, permittingcustomers to intelligently share a consistent data image at local SANrates - enabling compute, storage, and visualization resources to beleveraged across multiple distributed sites.

"This project demonstrates that data grids do not have to belimited to single site or campus deployments," said Martin Pinard,President SGI Canada. "The SGI and YottaYotta solution will allowusers spread across the WestGrid environment to experience transparentand secure access to shared data, even if it's physically locatedthousands of kilometers away."

The SGI/YottaYotta Data Grid Solution

Together SGI's clustered file system, CXFS and YottaYotta's GlobalBlock Services offer a new standard in data grid service. The combinedSGI/YottaYotta solution provides access to a globally consistent namespace at local performance rates. A common way to share data betweensites is to duplicate it by using FTP to copy files from storage atone site, to storage at another site. This model suffers from excessdata duplication, excess WAN traffic, and increased challenges withversion management. With the SGI/YottaYotta solution, the userexperience is fundamentally different from the traditional FTP model.Rather than having to log on to a remote server, initiate an FTPsession, and download files, the user is provided with transparentlocal access to remote files as if they were sitting on his or herdesktop.

"The deployment of the SGI/YottaYotta data grid solution validatesthat distributed data processing across geography is now a viableoption as opposed to duplicating compute and storage infrastructure,"said Wayne Karpoff, chief technology officer and co-founder ofYottaYotta.

SGI: The Source of Innovation and Discovery(TM)

SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leaderin high-performance computing, visualization, and storage. SGI'svision is to provide technology that enables the most significantscientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whetherit's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil moreefficiently, studying global climate, or enabling the transition fromanalog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing thenext class of challenges for scientific, engineering, and creativeusers. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered inMountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.

About YottaYotta

YottaYotta provides a suite of Global Block Services that deliverGlobal Data Sharing and Fully-Active Continuity of Operations (COOP).The NetStorager System localizes access to globally coherent data,enabling organizations to leverage their entire storage infrastructureacross multiple distributed sites while providing a significantreduction in WAN traffic. The result is increased utilization of ITresources, SAN performance over the WAN, and continuity of operationsdespite site failures and network disruptions. Founded in January2000, YottaYotta is privately funded with offices in Edmonton, AB andAlexandria, VA.

About WestGrid

WestGrid is a $50 million project to operate grid-enabled highperformance computing and collaboration infrastructure at institutionsacross Alberta and British Columbia. A second stage of the project,dubbed WestGrid II, envisions an infrastructure that will include allresearch universities and major research institutes using computationresources in western Canada. WestGrid can be found on the web atwww.westgrid.ca.

Silicon Graphics, SGI, XFS, the SGI cube and the SGI logo areregistered trademarks and CXFS and The Source of Innovation andDiscovery are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the UnitedStates and/or other countries worldwide. YottaYotta, NetStorage, andNetStorager are registered trademarks of YottaYotta, Inc. All othertrademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respectiveowners.