Whamcloud announced a multi-year contract with OpenSFS, the Lustre community group in North America. The contract covers performance and namespace improvements, and an online file system checker that will maintain distributed coherency across the file system. Technical development under this contract will begin immediately and continue through 2013.

"OpenSFS is committed to supporting and extending the Lustre file system. This means helping to focus and extend Lustre development in areas deemed critical to users," said Norman Morse, President of OpenSFS. "Whamcloud has proven to be an extremely capable and enthusiastic partner and was selected for contract award after a rigorous RFP/award process. We are very pleased with this award and look forward to working with them closely."

"OpenSFS has done much to unify and focus the Lustre community over the past year," said Brent Gorda, CEO of Whamcloud. "This core development agreement speaks loudly to the collective desire to push Lustre forward for the benefit of the broader HPC community. As our business continues to grow, we are pleased to provide core development activities such as this."

The contract between OpenSFS and Whamcloud includes three components: Single Server Metadata Performance (SSMP), Distributed Name Space (DNE) and Lustre File System Checker (LFSCK). The contract is divided into clear delivery phases designed to provide incremental benefits quickly. The first delivery phase is scheduled for Spring 2012.