Given the rise of big data analytics as a necessity for businesses, the demand for tools and systems that can process data has risen, which is why Cray has revealed a new system.
The Cray Urika-GX is being called the "first agile analytics platform that fuses supercomputing technologies with an open, enterprise-ready software framework for big data analytics," according to the company.
The system is designed to give customers versatility for running multiple analytics workloads at the same time on a single platform.
Cray says that the problem it is trying to solve is the size, scope, and complexity of big data analytics which is, according to Cray, resulting in cluster sprawl, a torrent of new applications, and increasing pressure to deliver faster insights.
To solve these problems Cray’s analytics platform will combine the throughput capabilities of its supercomputers with an appliance, something that should be more convenient to use.
The system is pre-tested and pre-integrated with the Hortonworks Data Platform so that it can provide Hadoop, Apache Spark, and Cray’s Graph Engine.
The openness of the system continues with enterprise tools such as OpenStack for management and Apache Mesos for dynamic configuration.
Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. "Customers have asked us to blend the unique features of our product lines into a single platform for data analytics.
"We took the Aries system interconnect from our supercomputers, the industry-standard architecture of our clusters, the scalable graph engine from the Urika-GD appliance, and the pre-integrated, open infrastructure of our Urika-XA system and combined them into one agile analytics platform."
One of the key features of the system is the Cray Graph Engine which is designed for complex iterative discovery. According to the company this technology is typically ten to 100 times faster than current graph solutions for complex analytics operations.
The system features Intel Xeon Broadwell cores, 22 terabytes of memory, 35 terabytes of local SSD storage capacity, and the Aries supercomputing interconnect.
The system will initially be available in three configurations featuring 16, 32, or 48 nodes delivered in a 42U 19-inch rack and will be available in Q3 2016. Larger configurations will be available in the second half of 2016.
