AMPLab has been investigating a number of issues related to Storage Systems for Big Data.   The focus has been on exploiting large memories and faster storage technologies such as SSDs.  A recent article in EdTech does a nice job of describing some of this work, with a focus on the new cluster we are deploying internally, in part with a generous equipment donation from AMPLab sponsor Intel.   Their hardware donations support our work on scalable machine learning and data analytics, as well as a separater cluster focused on the Cancer Genomics project.  This equipment was provided above and beyond their regular sponsorship of the lab.   In the attached photo from the article, Jon Kuroda and Ion Stoica show off the new platform.