DDN Selected to Modernize Research Data Infrastructure at UNSW Sydney

DDN EXAScaler and Arcitecta Mediaflux will replace 11 legacy storage systems, simplifying access to research data while balancing performance and cost

DDN, the global leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, today announced that UNSW Sydney has selected DDN to deliver a new research data storage environment as part of the university’s Research Data Experience (RDE) program. Working with Australian software company Arcitecta, DDN will combine its EXAScaler parallel file system with Arcitecta’s Mediaflux® data management platform to help researchers spend less time managing data and more time using it.

Following an extensive 18-month evaluation, UNSW selected an integrated approach that will replace 11 legacy storage systems with a coordinated environment for high-performance storage and enterprise data management. The decision reflects a broader challenge facing research-intensive institutions: how to support rapidly expanding scientific datasets while simplifying infrastructure, improving data accessibility and managing long-term costs.

Built for data-intensive research, high-performance computing and AI workloads, DDN EXAScaler is a parallel file system designed to deliver high-throughput access to large and complex datasets at scale. Its ability to support both flash and hard disk storage enables organizations to balance performance requirements with infrastructure costs. For research institutions such as UNSW, this provides a foundation for supporting demanding scientific workloads without requiring every dataset to reside on premium storage media.

“World-class research deserves world-class data infrastructure. Our partnership with UNSW is about empowering researchers to spend less time managing data and more time making discoveries," said Kevin Delane - President & CRO of DDN Inc. “By bringing EXAScaler together with Arcitecta’s data management capabilities, we are helping UNSW build a simpler foundation for data-intensive research, one designed to reduce storage fragmentation and give researchers more time to focus on discovery.”

The architecture is designed to automatically move data between high-speed on-campus storage caches and a central off-campus system. Researchers will benefit from fast access where needed, while the university can use lower-cost hard disk drives for data that doesn’t require flash-level performance. The on-premises solution will also support cloud environments.

DDN is the project’s prime contractor, with Arcitecta supplying the data management layer. Arcitecta developed an EXAScaler connector that captures file-system metadata changes for Mediaflux to use, linking high-performance storage with richer tools for organizing and managing data.

“Research data is only valuable when people can find it, understand it and put it to work,” said Jason Lohrey, CEO of Arcitecta. “Integrating Mediaflux with EXAScaler brings data and metadata management closer to the underlying storage infrastructure. The goal is to make complex research data environments easier to manage without compromising the performance demanding workloads require.”

The project began September 1, 2026. Equipment delivery is planned for early 2027, with the system expected to go live later in 2027.

About DDN

DDN is the world’s leading provider of AI data storage and data management platforms, powering over 20 years of innovation across HPC, enterprise, and the largest AI deployments on Earth. With its EXA, Infinia, and intelligent data management platforms, DDN delivers unmatched performance, scale, and business value for customers building next-generation AI factories, hyperscale clouds, and Sovereign AI initiatives. DDN is the trusted partner for thousands of the world’s most data-intensive organizations, including the leading national labs, research institutions, enterprises, hyperscalers, financial firms, and autonomous vehicle innovators. For more information, visit www.ddn.com.

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About Arcitecta

Arcitecta has been building the industry’s best data management platforms since the dawn of the data age. Today, Arcitecta is transforming data management and backup with Mediaflux, a rich end-to-end data fabric that simplifies data-intensive workflows in petabyte-scale environments to improve business and research outcomes. Mediaflux unifies data management processes into a single platform, simplifying the administration of massive data sets and allowing world leaders to solve some of the most challenging problems on the planet. For more, visit www.arcitecta.com.

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