2010 Best Practices Competition IT & Informatics HPC

Bio‐IT World 2010 Best Practices Awards
Nominating Organization name: Isilon Systems
Nominating Organization address: 3101 Western Ave
Nominating Organization city: Seattle
Nominating Organization state: WA
Nominating Organization zip: 98121
Nominating Contact Person: Lucas Welch
Nominating Contact Person Title: PR Manager
Nominating Contact Person Phone: 206‐315‐7621
Nominating Contact Person Email: lucas.welch@isilon.com
User Organization name: Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
User Organization address: 825 NE 13th Street
User Organization city: Oklahoma City
User Organization state: OK
User Organization zip: 73104
User Organization Contact Person: Stuart Glenn
User Organization Contact Person Title: Software Engineer
User Organization Contact Person Phone: 405‐271‐7933 x35287
User Organization Contact Person Email: stuart‐glenn@omrf.org
Project Title:
Transition to Nextgen Sequencing and Virtual Data Center
Team Leaders name: Stuart Glenn
Team Leaders title: Software Engineer
Team Leaders Company: OMRF
Team Leaders Contact Info: 405‐271‐7933 x35287, stuart‐glenn@omrf.org
Team Members name:
Team Members title:
Team Members Company:
Entry Category:
IT & Informatics
Abstract Summary:
Introduction: Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), a leading
nonprofit biomedical research institute, experienced an unprecedented influx of
mission‐critical, genetic information with the introduction of a high‐powered,
next‐generation Illumina Genome Analyzer and server virtualization. To maximize
both its infrastructure investment and the value of its genetic data, OMRF needed
a storage solution capable of keeping pace with its tremendous data growth while
still powering its virtual data center without the burden of costly upgrades and
tedious data migrations
In its efforts to identify more effective treatments for human disease, OMRF
generates tremendous amounts of mission‐critical genomic information.
This data is then processed and analyzed using Linux computer servers running the
VMware ESX virtualization software application. With its previous NAS system,
OMRF would have been forced to migrate genetic information back and forth between
disparate data silos, slowing sequencing runs and depriving its virtual servers
of the data access and high throughput necessary to realize the full potential of
virtualized computing.