IBM has given a RCC staffer the honour of contributing to one of its in-depth technical publications.
Sarah Walters, RCC Research Systems Projects and Delivery Manager, is co-author of an IBM Systems’ Redbooks publication titled “IBM Storage Scale: Working with Abstract Data.”
“It was a pretty big deal that IBM asked for my input. I felt incredibly welcomed, and my contribution was desired and valuable,” said Sarah.
RCC Director Jake Carroll said: “It’s very rare for a person outside of IBM to contribute to these types of publications.”
David Hook, Director Technology Sales, IBM, said: "IBM’s partnership with the University of Queensland goes well beyond being just a technology supplier. UQ’s teams actively engage with IBM’s technical and engineering community to share insights into the real-world use of IBM’s technology that help shape product design and roadmaps.
"IBM Redbooks are the authoritative technical manuals and guides published by IBM to help IT professionals, developers and business partners understand, install and integrate our technology.
"IBM values the investment by UQ and in particular Sarah Walters' contribution to our recent publication, IBM Storage Scale: Working with Abstract Data."
The publication (freely available for download directly from the IBM Redbooks website) describes how IBM Storage Scale enables organisations to manage “abstract data”—data that spans multiple storage tiers, geographic locations, and storage technologies—through a single, unified global namespace.
Sarah closed the publication with a case study about how The University of Queensland addressed the challenges of research data storage and data management by creating a unique campus-wide, high-performance data storage fabric named MeDiCI (Metropolitan Data Caching Infrastructure), based on IBM’s Storage Scale product.
MeDiCI provides seamless access to data collections, regardless of whether they are used on workstations, laptops, supercomputers or scientific instruments. Importantly, it supports the bulk of the storage volume for data collections in the UQ Research Data Manager (RDM) system, a web-based interface which Sarah also wrote about in the IBM publication.
“Use of the RDM is now mandatory [for UQ researchers]. It has been proven effective and reliable,” wrote Sarah.
The “Working with Abstract Data” publication uses practical examples and real‑world scenarios to show how IBM Storage Scale hardware delivers scalable, high‑performance, and cost‑efficient data management for AI, analytics, HPC, hybrid cloud, and enterprise data environments.
IBM Redbooks are in-depth technical publications developed by IBM Systems that provide authoritative, hands-on guidance for implementing, managing, and using IBM products. They offer comprehensive insights—including best practices, scenarios, and step-by-step guides—developed through a collaborative process involving IBM engineers, experts and clients.
UQ and IBM Australia have an official partnership through the IBM@UQ Centre of Excellence and Innovation in which IBM provides UQ with innovative platforms for trial and testing in a research environment.
