DDN Storage and Gatan Drive Demanding Microscopy Workflows with Unmatched Performance at Scale

Posted: 
August 07, 2017

Combined Solution Accelerates Electron Microscopy Workflows with Next-Generation, High-Resolution Cameras, and Best-In-Class, High-Performance Data Storage

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – August 1, 2017DataDirect Networks (DDN®) today announced a strategic partnership with Gatan®, the world’s leading manufacturer of instrumentation and software used to enhance and extend the operation and performance of electron microscopes, to deliver groundbreaking solutions for microscopy research environments and workflows. With innovative solutions that combine DDN’s high-performance data storage platform and Gatan’s high-performance cameras, the DDN and Gatan partnership offers a wide variety of end-user applications a powerful, end-to-end solution to accelerate research, to speed time to results, and to fully leverage the power of the latest technologies in electron microscopy.

“Massive increases in instrument data are revolutionizing life science and materials research and, at the same time, are placing unprecedented demands on storage,” said Robert Triendl, senior vice president of global sales, marketing, and field services at DDN. “At DDN, we are known for tackling the most data-intensive, technical computing environments. Gatan’s leading camera technologies create the type of demanding, high-performance environments in which DDN’s unique capabilities allow our customers to do more, faster than traditional enterprise storage. We are excited to team with Gatan to address not only today’s challenges but future ones as these technologies advance.”

Within recent years, dramatic advances in cameras for in-situ and cryo-electron microscopy have led to data rates exceeding 10 gigabytes per second. While Gatan’s latest high-resolution microscopy cameras are providing ever improving spatial and temporal resolution to the world’s top research projects, they are also producing immense volumes of digital data at unprecedented rates. This data growth from increased resolutions and frame rates has out-paced the ability of traditional storage solutions to support current microscopy workflow performance and scale requirements adequately. DDN’s storage uniquely supports reliable, fast instrument data ingest as well as analysis, archive, collaboration, publication and data protection without the need for costly, cumbersome infrastructure silos.

“Gatan cameras are well-known for producing the highest quality image and video available for scientific research and analysis. To take advantage of these capabilities, they need to be paired with data solutions that allow for fast, easy data accessibility,” said Sander Gubbens, president at Gatan. “As we analyzed storage solutions, DDN’s storage platform was a remarkable stand-out in the market. It allows the management of end-to-end microscopy workflows, from high-performance, multi-instrument ingest, to simultaneous high-speed analysis – all within a single platform – and allows Gatan’s high-end cameras to perform at full capacity – now and well into the future.”

Most storage solutions in the market today suffer bottlenecks that will not allow for simultaneous ingest and egress of high-rate microscopy data. Conversely, the combined DDN/Gatan solution allows ingest and egress to happen simultaneously. This simultaneous processing enables organizations to accelerate time to results and to optimize the use of their high-resolution, high-speed sensor equipment – thus increasing return on investment and maximizing the value users can achieve.

DDN storage platforms are ideal for high-resolution microscopy environments in life science, material science and product design, semiconductor design and production, and oil and gas research, among others. DDN solutions can scale to support from one to many high data rate instruments where each instrument may require from megabytes to >10 gigabytes per second each. DDN solutions efficiently grow to hundreds of petabytes of capacity and speeds of up to terabytes per second, delivering high performance, industry-leading density, and scalability for core workflows. DDN storage, combined with Gatan’s suite of high-resolution camera solutions, including the K3®, K2®, K2 IS, OneView®, Rio®, STEMx®, and 3View®, is enabling new levels of productivity and advances in microscopy workflows. Over the past several years, DDN and Gatan have been deployed together in leading life sciences sites like The Scripps Research Institute and Van Andel Research Institute, and are now collaborating on forward-looking products.

Microscopy & Microanalysis 2017 Meeting
Gatan and DDN will be showcasing the combined solution at the upcoming Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) show in St. Louis, MO, August 6 − 10, 2017. Stop by Gatan’s booth #504 for additional information.

Supporting Resources

About DDN
DataDirect Networks (DDN) is the world’s leading big data storage supplier to data-intensive, global organizations. For almost 20 years, DDN has designed, developed, deployed and optimized systems, software and storage solutions that enable enterprises, service providers, universities and government agencies to generate more value and to accelerate time to insight from their data and information, on premise and in the cloud. Organizations leverage the power of DDN storage technology and the deep technical expertise of its team to capture, store, process, analyze, collaborate and distribute data, information and content at the largest scale in the most efficient, reliable and cost-effective manner. DDN customers include many of the world’s leading financial services firms and banks, healthcare and life science organizations, manufacturing and energy companies, government and research facilities, and web and cloud service providers. For more information, go to www.ddn.com or call 1-800-837-2298.

About Gatan
Gatan is the world's leading manufacturer of instrumentation and software used to enhance and extend the operation and performance of electron microscopes. Gatan's products, which are fully compatible with all brands of electron microscopes, cover the entire range of the analytical process from specimen preparation and manipulation to imaging and analysis. Its customer base spans the complete spectrum of end users of analytical instrumentation typically found in industrial, governmental and academic laboratories. The applications addressed by these scientists and researchers include metallurgy, semiconductors, electronics, biological science, new materials research and biotechnology. The Gatan brand name is recognized and respected throughout the worldwide scientific community and has been synonymous with high-quality products and the industry's leading technology. Gatan, Inc. is a member of the Medical and Scientific Imaging segment of Roper Technologies.

Media Contacts:

DDN
Michael King, 408-419-2892
Sr. Director of Marketing
mking@ddn.com

IGNITE Consulting, on behalf of DDN
Linda Dellett, 303-439-9398
Kathleen Sullivan, 303-439-9365
ddn@igniteconsultinginc.com

Press Contact

Jennifer McKie
+1.925.224.7350 
jennifer.mckie@ametek.com