Earlier this year, Sun Microsystems acquired Large Storage Configuration (LSC) for $74 million. LSC develops high-performance file systems and data storage software – notably the SAM FS hierarchical storage manager used by many large scale data management solutions such as GeoQuest’s PowerHouse. The heterogeneous storage array network (SAN) is now fully Sun-supported and offers scalable hierarchical management for high performance computing (HPC) environments. Network speeds of over 2GB/s are supported and the system consolidates fragmented architectures from vendors such as SGI, Sun, HP, Compaq and IBM. Sun Energy Industry manager Nick Weston told PDM “Sun is increasingly moving into a systems integrator role with a typical installation involving SGI, AIX machines. With Sun SAM FS, all these systems can see the same data without duplication.”
Kirchoff
The technology has been put to use in a new ‘Decisionarium’ environment, originally developed for Unocal. Ultrasparc III-based Sun Blade 1000 workstation run EarthCube and OpenVision, optimized for Sun hardware. Unocal’s project leader Scharine Kirchoff said, “Immersive environments are essential to our work. The Landmark solution on the Sun platform gives us the performance of a high-end, million dollar solution, without breaking the bank.”
Calgary CAFÉ
The system – dubbed the Collaborative Application Fusion Environment ‘CAFÉ’ is also used by Landmark in Calgary with visualization technology from Panoram and Trimension. Landmark president and CEO John Gibson said, “The E&P industry in Canada is facing ever increasing complexity in its exploration and exploitation activities. Collaborative visualization will help lower their finding, lifting and development costs.”
Cuthill
Landmark Canada boss Darcy Cuthill said “The CAFÉ represents a major investment for the benefit of our customers who now have access to a collaborative visualization environment.” The Landmark CAFÉ is now available to all Landmark customers without any facility rental cost, and may be booked through Landmark’s Calgary office. Landmark’s team of consultants is available to assist clients in gaining maximum productivity from the CAFÉ .