Wow! LUG 2012 was held this past week in Austin, Texas, and… wow. There is so much energy and focus around Lustre right now, it’s extremely exciting to be a part of.

We kicked LUG off with the DDN – Whamcloud Pre-LUG Party and packed the restaurant. The food was great, the conversations and interactions even better. It really energized me to see that much enthusiasm gathered in one spot.

For LUG itself, the meeting hall was so crowded they had to add tables. The unofficial count says over 220 attendees. That’s a lot of Lustre experts. That compares to about 160 last year. Close to a 40% increase in attendance in one year! Wow.

But more than numbers, I noticed a decided forward momentum at LUG. Last year, there was maybe still some friction as the community groups were just coming together and the vendors were wondering where the technology was headed and how the market would shake out. This year, that’s solidly behind us. Releases are out on schedule, big name vendors are pushing new and interesting Lustre-based products as the Lustre ecosystem gains steam, and even traditionally dour HPC analysts are bullish. You can just feel it.

Just one example, Whamcloud announced that we are extending our working relationship this last month with EMC to provide deeper integration between the Parallel Log-structured File System (PLFS) and Lustre. This will help Lustre improve metadata handling and small file I/O performance. If you’ve been around Lustre for a while, you know this is an exciting development.

If you haven’t taken a look at HPC job boards lately, the number of Lustre positions open is another great indication of the strong interest in the technology. And, yes, Whamcloud is one of the companies hiring: http://www.whamcloud.com/company/careers/

Or, if you want to build your Lustre skills, we’re offering Lustre Installation and Administration training sessions worldwide. Alexandria, VA, at the end of this month, and Barcelona, Spain, in late June. For more information see: http://www.whamcloud.com/lustre/training

And, good news, if you missed LUG, or maybe can’t read your own handwritten notes, the talks are fully recorded and online: http://www.opensfs.org/resources-2/videos

Thanks again to everyone involved with LUG. Like I said… wow!

Go Lustre!

Brent

Media Links

SearchDataCenter.in Object-based File Systems come of age for HPC
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.in/feature/Object-based-File-Systems-come-of-age-for-HPC

insideHPC Interview: Whamcloud Gears Lustre for the Enterprise to Exascale
http://insidehpc.com/2012/04/05/interview-whamcloud-gears-lustre-for-the-enterprise-to-exascale/

HPCwire in the Cloud Whamcloud, EMC Collaborate on PLFS and Lustre Integration
http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/hpccloud/2012-04-09/whamcloud_emc_collaborate_on_plfs_and_lustre_integration.html

insideHPC Interview: EMC Speeds Lustre Integration with Whamcloud
http://insidehpc.com/2012/04/13/interview-emc-speeds-lustre-integration-with-whamcloud/

HPCwire DDN to Offer Whamcloud Chroma Enterprise with Exascaler
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-04-17/ddn_to_offer_whamcloud_chroma_enterprise_with_exascaler.html

insideHPC DDN Embraces Chroma Central Management System for Lustre Made Simple
http://insidehpc.com/2012/04/17/ddn-embraces-chroma-central-management-system-for-lustre-made-simple/

Brent is General Manager, High Performance Data Division, Intel Corp. He lives in the East Bay Area, loves his family and his road bike.