Cray Launches New Hadoop Solution on Cray CS300 Line of Cluster Supercomputers

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Jun 13, 2013) - Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced the launch of a new Hadoop® solution, which will allow customers to apply the combination of supercomputing technologies and an enterprise-strength approach to "Big Data" analytics to high-value Hadoop applications. Available later this month, Cray cluster supercomputers for Hadoop will pair Cray CS300 systems with the Intel® Distribution for Apache Hadoop® (Intel® Distribution) software.

Built on optimized configurations of the Cray CS300 systems, Cray cluster supercomputers for Hadoop software feature turnkey performance, reliability and maintainability. The Hadoop solution will include a Linux® operating system, workload management software, the Cray Advanced Cluster Engine (ACE™) management software, and the Intel Distribution, which includes greater security, improved real-time handling of data, and improved performance throughout the storage hierarchy. The entire solution is integrated, optimized, validated and supported by Cray.

"More and more organizations are expanding their usage of Hadoop software beyond just basic storage and reporting. But while they're developing increasingly complex algorithms and becoming more dependent on getting value out of Hadoop systems, they are also pushing the limits of their architectures," said Bill Blake, senior vice president and CTO of Cray. "We are combining the supercomputing technologies of the Cray CS300 series with the performance and security of the Intel Distribution to provide customers with a turnkey, reliable Hadoop solution that is purpose-built for high-value Hadoop environments. Organizations can now focus on scaling their use of platform-independent Hadoop software, while gaining the benefits of important underlying architectural advantages from Cray and Intel."

The launch of Cray cluster supercomputers for Hadoop software expands Cray's portfolio of products for the rapidly growing Big Data market. Cray's complementary array of Big Data solutions includes fast-data and data-movement capabilities with Cray Sonexion® storage systems, knowledge discovery using YarcData's Urika™ appliance for graph analytics, and now a powerful Hadoop system offering paired with the scalable and flexible line of Cray CS300 systems.

"The convergence of data-intensive HPC and high-end commercial analytics is forming a new Big Data market IDC calls High Performance Data Analysis, and most of this work is and will be done on clusters," said Steve Conway, IDC research vice president for HPC. "Cray's CS300 line of cluster supercomputers has a strong track record for scaling cluster-based Big Data problems to extremely high levels. Pairing the Cray CS300 systems with Intel's Hadoop Distribution creates a solution with the potential to tackle Big Data problems that would frustrate most clusters."