High Performance Storage System

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Incremental Scalability
Based on storage needs and deployment schedules, HPSS scales incrementally by adding computer, network and storage resources. A single HPSS namespace can scale from petabytes of data to exabytes of data, from millions of files to billions of files, and from a few file-creates per second to thousands of file-creates per second.
What is High Performance Storage System?
HPSS storage software meets the most challenging long term scalable storage requirements. HPSS features reduce the total cost of ownership of data, maximize transfer performance of all file sizes, lower tape cartridge costs, maximize storage utilization, efficiently manage data integrity, and minimize failure recovery time.

There are well known value propositions for the different types of storage. Solid state disks are the best storage option when bandwidth and I/O per second are the driving requirements. When files are needed immediately and capacity is the driving requirement, power-hungry hard disk drives may be the best option. Tape is the most economical storage for infrequently accessed data at scale, and is often called "zero-watt storage". Many storage and cloud providers offer different levels of storage, at different price points. Learn how HPSS helps with the long-term stewardship of data at scale.

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Highlights

Who developed HPSS?

HPSS is the result of over two and a half decades of collaboration among five Department of Energy laboratories and IBM, with significant contributions by universities and other laboratories worldwide.

Best of breed for tape!

HPSS is considered best of breed for tape because of our efficient use of tape hardware and media. Tape hardware and media efficiency translates to fewer tape drives to meet requirements, faster transfers, and happier users.

Not licensed by capacity!

HPSS is delivered and supported as an IBM service offering, so 2 PB or 200 PB disk and tape tiers are licensed the same. This means the annual support fee for HPSS remains relatively flat from year-to-year as the hardware footprint grows.
Is HPSS right for you??
Four of the top five supercomputers in the United States (Top500) use HPSS software to meet their long-term storage requirements. Single instances of HPSS support users ingesting and simultaneously recalling petabytes per day. If you currently store all your data on spinning disk, and you have growing storage needs that currently exceed five petabytes or your current tape solution is delivering abysmal tape performance, an HPSS best of breed tape storage solution from IBM may help lower your storage costs. HPSS can transfer files to tape faster and recall files from tape more efficiently so fewer tape drives are needed to meet storage requirements. Simply stated, extreme-scale capacity or extreme-scale file-count requirements are NOT the only reason customers use HPSS!

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Come meet with us!
HPSS @ MSST 2023
The 37th International Conference on Massive Storage Systems and Technology will be in Santa Clara, California in May of 2023 - Learn More. Please contact us if you would like to meet with the IBM business and technical leaders of HPSS at Santa Clara University.

HPSS @ ISC 2023
ISC 2023 is the event for high performance computing, machine learning, and data analytics, and will be in Hamburg, Germany from May 21st through May 25th, 2023 - Learn More. As we have done each year (pre-pandemic), we are scheduling and meeting with folks attending the conference. Please contact us meet with the IBM business and technical leaders of HPSS.

2023 HUF
The 2023 HPSS User Forum (HUF) will be an in-person event scheduled October 23-27, 2023, in Tucson, AZ or perhaps Washington, DC. Please check back for registration details. This will be a great opportunity to hear from HPSS users, collaboration developers, testers, support folks and leadership (from IBM and DOE Labs). Please contact us if you are not a customer but would like to attend.

HPSS @ SC23
The 2023 international conference for high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis will be in Denver, CO from November 12th through 17th, 2023 - Learn More. As we have each year (pre-pandemic), we are scheduling and meeting with customers via IBM Single Client Briefings. Please contact your local IBM client executive or contact us to schedule a HPSS Single Client Briefing to meet with the IBM business and technical leaders of HPSS.

HPSS @ STS 2024
The 5th Annual Storage Technology Showcase is in the planning phase, but HPSS expects to support the event. Check out their web site - Learn More.

What's New?
HPSS 10.2 Release - HPSS 10.2 was released on February 16th, 2023 and introduces six new features and numerous minor updates.

Celebrating 30 Years - 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the High Performance Storage System (HPSS) Collaboration.

HPSS 10.1 Release - HPSS 10.1 was released on September 30th, 2022 and introduces fourteen new features and numerous minor updates.

Lots of Data - In March 2022, IBM/HPSS delivered a storage solution to a customer in Canada, and demonstrated a sustained tape ingest rate of 33 GB/sec (2.86 PB/day peak tape ingest x 2 for dual copy), while simultaneously demonstrating a sustained tape recall rate of 24 GB/sec (2.0 PB/day peak tape recall). HPSS pushed six 18-frame IBM TS4500 tape libraries (scheduled to house over 1.6 Exabytes of tape media) to over 3,000 mounts/hour.

HPSS 9.3 Release - HPSS 9.3 was released on December 14th, 2021 and introduces eight new features and numerous minor updates.

HUF 2021 - The HPSS User Forum was hosted virtually at no cost in October 2021.

DOE Announces HPSS Milestone - Todd Heer, Deputy Program Lead, Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Facilities, Operations, and User Support (FOUS), announced that DOE High Performance Storage Systems (HPSS) eclipse one exabyte in stored data.

Atos Press Release - Atos boosts Météo-France’s data storage capacity to over 1 exabyte in 2025 to improve numerical modeling and climate predictions. Want to read more?

HPSS 9.2 Release - HPSS 9.2 was released on May 11th, 2021 and introduces eight new features and numerous minor updates.

Capacity Leader - ECMWF (European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) has a single HPSS namespace with over 778 PB spanning over 523 million files.

File-Count Leader - LLNL (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) has a single HPSS namespace with over 77 PB spanning 1.735 billion files.

Older News - Want to read more?
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  • Sandia
  • IBM
  • ANL
  • Boeing
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  • CEA
  • CNES
  • DWD
  • ECMWF
  • PNNL EMSL
  • HLRS
  • IU
  • IITM
  • IN2P3
  • JAXA
  • KEK
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  • Met Office
  • MPCDF
  • Meteo France
  • NASA ASDC
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  • NCMRWF
  • NOAA CLASS
  • NOAA NCEI
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  • Purdue
  • SciNet
  • SSC
  • SLAC
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