Profile: NICE Software
NICE Software delivers comprehensive grid & cloud solutions for a wide number of companies and institutions that increases user productivity for better access to applications and computing resources. Since 1996, NICE Software has provided solutions built on its flexible EnginFrame Grid Portal technology, delivering leading software products aimed at the organizational management and optimization of computing resources. NICE Software operates in a variety of industries including oil and gas, aerospace, automotive, life sciences, and telecommunications.
Challenges
NICE Software had seen strong adoption by oil & gas for computing applications, as its software allows petroleum engineers to reduce submission time, track runtime, and efficiently manage large data-sets associated with daily uploads. However, within this industry, a considerable amount of time was being spent waiting for large data sets containing geophysical, seismic, and other types of data to be collected and exchanged.
“A client of ours was experiencing problems when submitting jobs from Perth, Australia to Houston, Texas,” said Antonio Arena, Solutions Architect at NICE Software. “The data sets can vary in size from 2 GB to 5 GB. Engineers had to transfer the files to Houston using Windows Explorer, submit them to the cluster, and then copy back the results.” Furthermore, network conditions often added complexities and bottlenecks to file transfer tasks, causing many failed and unreliable transfers when sending crucial data.
Solutions
To accelerate file transfers within NICE Software’s solution, FileCatalyst Direct was directly integrated within the existing EnginFrame software. The FileCatalyst Direct point-to-point solution enabled accelerated, and managed file transfers with the FileCatalyst patented UDP-based technology. The solution allows for file transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps for any file size between cities, countries and even continents.
Results
As a result of using FileCatalyst, EnginFrame’s client organizations were able to recoup lost time by gaining rapid access to their valuable data, applications, and resources. “We are pleased to report that this has resulted in measurably increased efficiencies,” said Antonio Arena, Solutions Architect for NICE software. The efficiencies gained were the results of faster file transfers, dramatically increased reliability, and reduced run times for CPU intensive applications such as seismic analysis and reservoir simulation software.