The Stanford University Center for Genomics and Personalised Medicine has selected DataDirect Networks (DDN) technology to provide scientific workflow scalability to its gene sequencing research. Raw unprocessed sequencing data is staged to a newly-purchased DDN GridScaler and S2A6620 storage solution from the centre’s existing Illumina HiSeq 2000 DNA sequencing instruments. Production tests run with the DDN/Illumina workflow resulted in a performance gain over existing workflows.
‘Next-generation sequencing platforms like the Illumina HiSeq 2000 outputs hundreds of Gbytes of intermediate data per run, compounding into hundreds of Tbytes to Pbytes of genomics data per site,’ said Paul Bloch, president of DDN. ‘The high throughput and scalability of the S2A6620 combined with the performance of the GridScaler file system dramatically reduce the data reduction phase of the Illumina CASAVA pipeline, which means researchers can spend more time on their life-saving work and less time waiting for results.’
