NetApp E-Series Delivers 20 Years of Zero Downtime at CGG
Julie Fagan
CGG can’t afford a moment of downtime. The NetApp E-Series storage solution has proven to be an ideal partner for CGG’s HPC applications.
Throughout history, tools have changed the world—for example, the wheel. Paper. Printing. The internal combustion engine. Today we’re so inundated with technology that it’s easy to forget that at their core, computers are tools as well. And high-performance computing (HPC) is one of the tools that’s changing the world, right now.
High-performance computing is the tool behind the most mind-blowing supercomputing and artificial intelligence projects in the world. Genomic sequencing, autonomous vehicles, particle accelerators that allow scientists to study physics in incredible detail, and robots trained to perform surgeries on human beings are all powered by HPC. There are even “fun” applications for HPC, such as special effects in blockbuster movies. Immensely practical applications for HPC include oil and gas discovery and performing complex financial calculations. What unites these disparate uses of HPC is the volume of data they produce and consume.
Data is the cornerstone of any HPC project. Supercomputing is all about gathering and analyzing data so that it can generate insights, solve complex problems, and improve business workflows in game-changing ways. To realize these benefits, a supercomputer isn’t enough; storage that can keep up and retain all the data being captured at the edge is also required. New HPC platforms need new storage because their performance will be compromised—or they flat-out won’t run—on older storage systems designed for smaller, slower workloads. In the complex, high-speed environment of HPC, lost or corrupted data compromises the integrity of long-term projects, with many years of development, tremendous capital investments, and incredibly high stakes. Subpar storage is simply too risky in the HPC environment.
One company that understands this challenge is the French geoscience company Compagnie Général de Géophysique (CGG). CGG’s expertise lies in discovering promising new locations for oil and gas discovery, using complex geological mapping on an HPC framework. Its proprietary mapping system generates tens of petabytes of data—for just a single project. Multiple projects for multiple clients in play at the same time mean that data requirements can be truly daunting for CGG’s data scientists to handle.
With client success riding on timely completion of projects, CGG can’t afford a moment of downtime. The NetApp® E-Series storage solution has proven to be an ideal partner for CGG’s HPC applications. With 99.9999% availability, it has proven to be so reliable that in its 20 years of use, CGG’s E-Series storage has literally never failed. E-Series storage has also been successful for CGG because it is infinitely scalable, while also being simple to deploy and manage. This means that no matter how many projects CGG takes on, E-Series storage can grow without creating unexpected problems, slowing the pace of exploration, or cutting into the bottom line. As Jean-Yves Blanc, chief IT architect at CGG puts it, “The E-Series is a perfectly designed, high-quality product that does exactly what we need, and nothing that we don’t.”
Read the full story: CGG Fuels Resource Discovery with On-Demand Geoscience Processing.
Learn more about NetApp high-performance E-Series solutions at netapp.com/hpc.
Julie Fagan
Julie Fagan has a long career in high-tech solutions marketing. She loves working at NetApp where she gets to focus on bringing the best video surveillance and high performance computing storage solutions to the world along with her awesome co-workers.
