Hewlett-Packard’s landed another academic partner to utilize its storage and big data solutions.  The  University of Utah’s Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) selected HP storage technology and servers handle big data processing for its research projects and accelerate information delivery.

“Our research groups use the CHPC resources to quickly collect and analyze information for a variety of research projects at a national level,” said Guy Adams, assistant director, Center for High Performance Computing, University of Utah.

The center now uses the HP X9320 IBRIX Network Storage System scale-out NAS infrastructure solution with HP ProLiant SL160z G6 servers. These, along with HP Insight Control, were also deployed to simplify system management for administrators.  As a result of implementation the new HP tech, CHPC reportedly reduced data processing time required for research projects by 50 percent – from three days to 1.5 days. The deployment also increased performance for large data transfers by five times, based on reported client results.

Hewlett-Packard is targeting the academic sector with its offerings, just like most of its competitors. Among its other clients are Eni S.p.A. of Italy and the University of Hamburg. The two institutions use 3PAR technology as well as other HP offerings to power their research.

The Manager for Technical Scientific Data and Systems Department of Eni S.p.A, Sergio Zazzera said in an interview: “The new HP server infrastructure provides 50 percent more compute power at a lower cost and in the same space as our former system.”

Storage-acceleration solutions vendor Fusion-io also published a case study last week, noting the success of its storage solution for an academic research project. Its ioMemory tech is used by the  Protein Data Bank to carry out research of  large molecules and nucleic acid. The bank is a joint project of University of California, San Diego in collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC).