Geotrace Technologies Delivers World-Class Oil & Gas Solutions Using Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster

Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster Optimizes Geotrace's Linux Cluster to Process Results Faster, Improve Productivity, and Optimize IT Resources to Maximize Return on Investment

FREMONT, Calif., Aug. 22, 2006 -- Panasas Inc., today announced that Geotrace Technologies has deployed the Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster(TM) to help speed the delivery of seismic results in the search for new oil and gas deposits. Using the Panasas Storage Cluster, Geotrace scientists have dramatically improved the turnaround time of several critical processes running on the company's Linux cluster. By doing so, Geotrace has been able to boost productivity, allowing them to increase revenue by processing more jobs, and reduce their overall total cost of ownership (TCO) by streamlining management and system administrative tasks.

Geotrace is the largest independent provider of subsurface imaging and reservoir analysis for the oil and gas industry worldwide. The company helps its customers optimize oil and gas production by using state-of-the-art software applications that rely on computing power of a Linux cluster with a high-performance storage solution such as the Panasas Storage Cluster. Geotrace is using the Panasas storage solution for 3D imaging of raw field data to determine promising areas for exploration. Previously, data had to be spread out over multiple NFS servers, which was costly to manage and slowed down critical steps in the seismic processing cycle.

"Turnaround time and the quality of our work are competitive strengths for Geotrace. Obviously with thousands of nodes in the cluster, we'd like to use as many nodes as possible to process information faster and deliver results sooner. Unfortunately, NFS made our environment more complicated in trying to keep the cluster busy. Panasas storage with DirectFLOW(TM) alleviated many hurdles we encountered with NFS in the past. Now we canstop solving system issues and focus on the challenges of imaging for our oil and gas customers," said Matt Gaskamp, senior systems administrator at Geotrace's headquarters in Houston.

Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster with DirectFLOW

Geotrace was able to quickly integrate the Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster with DirectFLOW alongside of existing direct-attached storage without a costly and time-consuming implementation process. The integrated hardware/software storage solution combines a next-generation, parallel file system and an object-storage architecture that is perfectly tuned to deliver superior performance right out of the box. The DirectFLOW capability offers users such as Geotrace with a fully-parallel data path to allow high speed, direct communications between the company's Linux cluster and Panasas storage. This direct data path eliminates costly performance bottlenecks that can cause the cluster to idle as it waits for data. Additionally, the Panasas Storage Cluster provides a single global namespace for very high scalability and near linear scaling in performance as more capacity is added.

"Geotrace is one of many successful companies in the energy industry that is using the Panasas Storage Cluster with DirectFLOW to help address its business objectives and achieve a competitive edge," said Larry Jones, vice president of marketing at Panasas. "The presence of Panasas in production oil and gas networks worldwide helps organizations bring real-world solutions to the market faster, improve business efficiencies, and improve their bottom line."

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