Today's exponential growth in data volumes creates formidable challenges in building IT storage infrastructures that can effectively support HPC environments. Traditional solutions often suffer from the inability to deliver data expeditiously to grid nodes, to manage data across its entire lifecycle, and to scale cost-effectively to meet growth in online, nearline, and offline storage needs.

Based on customer best practices and innovative Sun technologies, Sun proposes a reference architecture that addresses the complexity of the HPC data management, storage, and delivery problem. The Sun Storage and Archive Solution for HPC stores and manages HPC data on appropriate media types and delivers data promptly and transparently to users and grid nodes, regardless of the data's location-local or remote, from online storage or offline archive.

The solution is based on a modular approach and can scale seamlessly by adding modules in a specific functional area to increase IOPS, bandwidth, or capacity. Six module types form the backbone of the solution, combined with advanced file system and data management capabilities provided by Sun StorageTek QFS software, Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager (SAM), Solaris ZFS, and, in the largest performance-driven configurations, Lustre technology.