Net Apps Dedupes Genome Data

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- NetApp announced today that the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy (IGSP) dramatically reduced its storage capacity for its ever-growing genomic information with NetApp(R) deduplication, helping to decrease the institute's overall hardware, power, and administration requirements. With NetApp, Duke IGSP can now scale to meet rapidly rising storage needs while improving its storage efficiency for its virtual environment.

The IGSP is comprised of Duke University students, faculty, and staff and is dedicated to the study of life through scientific inquiry involving interdisciplinary research in genome sciences and policy. These scientists passionately support and facilitate campus-wide research and scholarship that explore the impact of genome sciences on all aspects of life, human health, and social policy.

Creating and analyzing genomic information requires a substantial amount of data storage. In IGSP's case, that meant a data storage infrastructure that grew from 4TB to 300TB within a two-year span. Much of this data was contained in large Oracle(R) databases on dedicated servers and locally attached storage. "We just bought more disks and kept giving them to Oracle," said database administrator Rob Wagner. "Over time this proved to be very difficult to manage. Server sprawl and inefficient data storage utilization became a constant headache."

NetApp Inc.