ACADEMIA

Panasas, Inc. today announced Petroleum Geo-Services Corporation (PGS) has deployed the Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster to help clients in the oil and gas industry reduce exploration risk. The Panasas Storage Cluster increases the performance and simplifies the management of PGS' Linux cluster, minimizing the time it takes to process seismic data and reducing overall IT costs. PGS uses seismic data acquisition and processing to help global oil and gas customers accurately pinpoint where and when to drill. The company deploys very large Linux clusters to handle the compute-intensive processing of seismic data to create subsurface images. The Panasas Storage Cluster supports PGS' worldwide seismic processing operations with installations in Houston, London, and Kuala Lumpur. "Seismic data processing is highly competitive and our goal is always to help clients meet their exploration objectives faster and more cost efficiently," said Andy Wrench, DP Computer Systems Manager for PGS Global Computer Resources. "The large data sets with which we work require very high bandwidth in order to process data as fast as possible. After evaluating several storage products, none offered the compelling performance and ease-of-management that we receive with Panasas. The Panasas DirectFLOW data path allows us to avoid partitioning the cluster with expensive connections in order to keep up with our heavy bandwidth requirements." The Panasas Storage Cluster is an integrated hardware/software solution that combines a parallel file system with object-based storage technology, allowing customers to quickly and seamlessly integrate into a customer's existing infrastructure. The Panasas Storage Cluster delivers scalable capacity and bandwidth in a single global namespace, enabling customers to easily manage large amounts of data. The DirectFLOW data path provides direct access between the Linux cluster nodes and Panasas storage without the delays normally associated with traditional SAN and NAS storage. This data transfer capability enables performance that scales in a linear fashion as capacity is increased. "Our success in addressing all of PGS' cluster requirements is further evidence of the breadth of our solution for oil & gas customers," said Victor Perez, president and chief executive officer at Panasas. "Unlike competitive offerings which add cost and complexity to cluster environments, Panasas' strategic focus on delivering high-performance clustered storage tailored to meet the IT imperatives of commercial customers is delivering demonstrable returns for companies such as PGS."