Storage Cluster Software Supports Active and Archive Data for Genetic Research

Cost-effective and scalable archive storage-cluster software has been developed for the growing volume of genotyping data for genetic researchers.

Caringo, Inc. (Austin, TX, USA), a provider of content storage software that provides clustered storage infrastructure for storing both active and archive content, reported that its CAStor software was selected by the Center of Inherited Disease Research (CIDR) at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA).

CIDR is a centralized facility providing genotyping and statistical genetics services for investigators seeking to identify genes that contribute to human disease. Through a U.S. grant, CIDR supports 13 U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, MD, USA) and mainly concentrates on multi-factorial hereditary disease as well as analysis of single gene disorders. Changes in the practice of genotyping over the past several years have led to a considerable increase in the amount of data generated and the need to implement something more manageable than the JBOD (just a bunch of drives) storage servers it was using.

CIDR currently has a 31-node CAStor cluster implemented with 104 TB of available capacity and 82 TB in use. Having an affordable, high-performance and scalable CAStor cluster helps meet CIDR's requirements in which it is producing 1 TB of new data each week and sometimes daily. It can generate as much as 2.5 TB of new data each day when operating at full capacity.

"The benefits of CAStor--affordability, scalability, and ease of management--are an unbeatable combination for organizations with massive amounts of critical data,” said Mark Goros, CEO, Caringo. "Johns Hopkins University's CIDR is a data-intensive environment with a need for dependable, fast archiving of clinical information, and CAStor's acceptance is a testament to its unique capabilities.”

CAStor is a scalable, high-performance, and cost-effective software product that runs on standard, commodity server hardware for a fraction of the price of other content-addressed storage (CAS) systems. CAStor is self-healing, managing, and configuring, uses no proprietary APIs (application programming interfaces), and requires no provisioning or downtime to add nodes and storage capacity in real time.

Caringo is a provider of content-storage software and it has reimagined content-addressed storage from the ground up with its flagship CAStor product. CAStor is third-generation technology that utilizes the customer's choice of commodity hardware for implementing a storage cluster that dramatically improves the scope and economics of corporate content storage.


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Caringo
Johns Hopkins University