The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is the leading academic supercomputing center in the country. TACC is also home to the U.S. National Science Foundation Leadership-Class Computing Facility (NSF LCCF), which is poised to revolutionize computational research and discovery.
Not only does tape provide more capacity for the money, but it’s also more stable and secure for long-term storage. When data is written to tape, we don’t have to worry about it quite as much as other storage mediums like disk or flash.
The Challenge
As TACC prepared to launch the Horizon supercomputer, it faced a major storage challenge: How to manage the massive, AI-driven datasets the system would generate? Existing infrastructure couldn’t scale to exabyte levels. TACC needed a long-term archive that ensured speed, reliability, and flexibility.
The Solution
TACC deployed Ranch, a next-generation archive system designed to scale with Horizon’s demands. It combines two Spectra Logic TFinity® tape libraries with Versity ScoutAM software, supported by Dell servers and high-speed storage tiers. This integrated solution delivers superior scalability, intelligent data management, and disaster recovery framework.
The Result
TACC now has a cost-effective exascale system that can support Horizon’s workloads. Ranch safeguards data against downtime or loss and ensures long-term storage reliability. With this robust foundation in place, Horizon can drive scientific breakthroughs while keeping every discovery secure and accessible.
Environment Snapshot
- 2x 15-frame Spectra TFinity tape libraries
- Versity ScoutAM nodes
- 20x LTO-9 drives*
- Dell PowerEdge R760 servers
- 5x Dell ME5 storage arrays
- Dell ECS extended cache
*Future plan: 16 LTO-10 and 4 LTO-9 drives
