Panasas enhances AI/HPC hybrid storage management with new PanFS 10

This release, powering Panasas' ActiveStor portfolio, adopts a unique shared-nothing architecture. Now, it includes support for Seagate Exos 2X18 with MACH2 dual-actuator technology, which enhances the performance of the ActiveStor system. 

PanFS 10 also expands its capabilities for cloud workflows with S3 compatibility, facilitating the seamless transition of AI/HPC workloads from the cloud to on-premise datacentres.

PanFS 10 will be showcased at SuperComputing 2023 in Denver, CO, at Panasas booth #437.

Ken Claffey, CEO at Panasas, said: “Our goal is to deliver tangible value to our customers, and we're thrilled to provide these new advancements with the PanFS 10 release. We understand that our customers' data environments demand greater performance and cost-efficiency coupled with storage solutions that are easy to install, configure, and manage at scale. We also know that in today's hybrid IT landscape, it's crucial that architectures facilitate the flexible deployment of HPC/AI applications and scale to support business growth. We won’t stop innovating and delivering reliable storage solutions to market that provide exceptional performance and flexibility at a competitive price point.”

With AI investments on the rise, the demand for a storage system that offers the performance of HPC and the reliability of enterprise storage solutions is increasing. PanFS 10, combined with ActiveStor Ultra, bridges this gap, leveraging the storage capacity of HDDs with MACH2 technology to offer enhanced performance for sequential data rates.

Claffey added: “We’re setting a new performance/cost benchmark with the new PanFS 10 capabilities. With support for Seagate’s MACH2 dual-actuator drives, organisations can now benefit from twice the performance capacity without having to evaluate a cost-multiplier of using all-flash storage solutions, which prove costly as storage requirements for emerging workloads expand.”

The integration of S3 cloud-first protocol in PanFS 10 supports tools and applications developed in the Cloud, providing enhanced metadata and IOPS performance. This flexibility allows for the efficient management of storage workloads across various datacentres, whether on-premises, at the edge, or in the cloud.

Jason Zimmerman, senior director, product line management for Seagate, commented: “Pairing complementary technologies from leading storage innovators is a powerful path to advanced performance, usability, and TCO. Adding software support for Seagate’s MACH2 dual-actuator hard drives in Panasas’ ActiveStor Ultra platform delivers a powerful solution that offers an impressive balance between performance and economics.”

Panasas also announced support for 24TB SATA HDDs and InfiniBand HDR.

The new release of ActiveStor Ultra and PanFS 10 will be available in Q1 2024. For pre-ordering, visit Panasas' contact page.

Readers can find further information in the PanFS 10 architectural overview whitepaper on the Panasas website.