NASA Launches Legacy Data To AWS Cloud

NASA Ames Research Center, NASA’s very own Silicon Valley brainchild, is ready to shift its datasets onto Amazon Web Services’ S3 platform.

To do this, NASA Ames is recruiting the help of Avere Systems, a hybrid cloud-orientated enterprise storage provider that will act as the gateway to AWS for NASA.

NASA Ames is where a majority of NASA’s computing and scientific breakthroughs happened, including advancements in supercomputing, low-Earth orbit missions, and lunar science. It’s surprising at this stage for such a progressive institute to not have transitioned its legacy data into the cloud already, but it does show how even the most technological-savvy companies will put their trust into Amazon’s cloud.

Traditionally, NASA Ames had used NFS (network file system) and CIFS (common internet file system) to store its immense pools of data, but had recently considered a number of options on how to move to AWS S3.

Performance

“With Avere, the researchers at Ames Research Center didn’t encounter downtime during their transition and were able to maintain the best possible performance when it comes to accessing their data while keeping the data protected,” said Avere CEO Ron Bianchini.

Of course, NASA as a whole is no stranger to AWS. Last year, TechWeekEuope interviewed NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab CTO Tom Soderstrom on how NASA would use AWS cloud to save an astronaut if they were to be stranded in space, just like in Hollywood blockbuster The Martian. NASA’s JPL has been using AWS for some time, recruiting the help of cloud for NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover and other robotic ventures.

NASA Ames is using Avere’s FlashMove service to migrate its data, while Avere claims its FlashCloud eliminates the latency associated with cloud by using special architecture to make most-used data more available while pushing more lesser-used data backwards.

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