Is it right for you?
A good fit
- Input and output for jobs running on the HPCC cluster
- Large datasets that are being analyzed now
- Lab-shared working space on the cluster
Not a fit
- Long-term archive of finished data
- Data rated P3 or P4
- Collaboration with people who do not have HPCC accounts
What it is
The HPCC's parallel file system (GPFS) is mounted on all of the cluster's CPU and GPU nodes, so jobs read and write data in place without copying it elsewhere first. The HPCC describes its storage as approximately 3 PB production and 3 PB backup storage (GPFS) (HPCC Hardware Details, as of Oct 2026).
Costs
Each standard user account includes 50 GB. Labs can rent more ($1,000 per 10 TB per year or $25 per 100 GB per year) or buy their own disks to HPCC specifications with an annual maintenance fee ($260 per 10 TB of backed-up storage per year). Owned disk has a supported lifetime set by the HPCC's owned-storage document, after which it must be replaced or moved to rental. The HPCC Recharging Rates are the authority.
Keep in mind
Treat cluster storage as working space. When an analysis is finished, move results you must keep to project storage or an archive. See Storage for the data lifecycle.