National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) deploys DataDirect Networks storage

To fuel its cutting-edge cancer research, the institute has deployed a full platform solution that includes DDN® SFA® high-performance storage, the massively scalable GRIDScaler™ parallel file system and WOS® object storage platform, to better handle Big Data ingest, processing, storing, collaboration and disaster recovery.

NIMBG uses massively-parallel DNA sequencing to process huge amounts of DNA sequence data to perform meaningful scientific interpretations and analyses, generating up to 500TBs of data on 500 oral cancer patients as part of its initiative under the aegis of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. With its legacy storage platform, it became increasingly difficult to ingest large datasets from next-gen sequencers and feed them to High-Performance Compute (HPC) clusters fast enough, and then securely share both raw data and results for collaboration and publishing purposes.

After deploying DDN’s high-throughput, highly scalable and reliable storage solutions, NIBMG scientists have achieved a significant improvement in data ingest time over its previous storage platform, enabling the team to run concurrent sequence analysis of twice as many patients, while translating results for broader research benefits in as little as three-to-four months.

As a result, a team of Indian scientists has identified new genes and biological pathways specific to oral cancer associated predominantly with smokeless tobacco consumption in India. Further detailed study on these discoveries may lead to finding better therapies for oral cancer faster.

DDN’s high-throughput, scalable storage powers more than one-third of the world’s top genomics centers, along with a rising number of leading clinical and pharmaceutical research sites.

DDN Expedites Time to Insight and Lowers TCO with Industry-Leading Throughput and Scalability
DDN’s best-of-class file and object storage is designed to ingest data quickly and easily into NIBMG’s research environment and then help simplify data analysis as well as securely share raw data and results for collaboration and publishing.

With DDN technology, NIBMG can sustain the highest levels of performance to ensure simultaneous sequencer ingest and HPC research on thousands of large data sets.

DDN’s WOS Object Storage is highly versatile, serving as a data backup for crucial research results as well as an active archive to make it easier for NIBMG to share ideas and results with research groups around the world.

Based on the ease with which the institute can expand capacity without having to replace systems, NIBMG is already seeing benefits from DDN storage. Additionally, due to the high-density of the DDN platform, NIBMG has been able to manage and administer data storage more efficiently.