Spectra Logic has been chosen as the tape library provider for a significant new archive deployment at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin. Spectra TFinity Plus tape libraries will form the long-term storage backbone for Ranch, TACC’s next-generation archive system that will support Horizon, the center’s upcoming NSF Leadership-Class Computing Facility system.
Horizon is expected to be the largest academic supercomputer dedicated to open scientific research worldwide. With a projected tenfold increase in simulation performance and a 100x expansion in AI capabilities compared to current systems, Horizon will generate massive volumes of data that must be retained reliably and cost-effectively over decades. Ranch, powered by Spectra TFinity Plus, is designed to provide that exabyte-scale archival foundation.
This deployment was highlighted at SC25, where Spectra Logic showcased how its tape libraries underpin the Horizon ecosystem and help enable large-scale scientific discovery across diverse research domains.
Strategic Partnership for Leadership-Class HPC and AI
TACC selected a combined solution from Spectra Logic, Dell Technologies, and Versity to protect and manage Horizon’s data. The new Ranch archive is one of the largest archival systems Dell has delivered to date and is positioned as a reference architecture for high-performance computing and AI-intensive environments.
Built on the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, Horizon will provide researchers with unprecedented HPC and AI capabilities to address complex challenges, from climate change to medical breakthroughs and fundamental physics. The supercomputer will deliver the performance and reliability needed for researchers to push the boundaries of discovery across various disciplines.
At the core of Horizon are Dell Rack Scalable Systems (IRSS) with direct-liquid-cooled Dell PowerEdge servers featuring the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform, NVIDIA Vera CPUs with 1 million cores, and 4,000 NVIDIA GPUs connected via NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand.
TACC leadership emphasized the importance of reliability, data integrity, and predictable performance for Horizon, given its role in supporting open science at the national and global scale. The combined solution leverages proven, production-hardened components that are already in use at leading HPC centers and national laboratories. This focus on mature, enterprise-grade technology reduces deployment risk and simplifies ongoing operations for TACC’s technical teams.
Spectra Logic’s CEO underscored TFinity Plus as a strong fit for Horizon’s requirements, citing the platform’s density, resilience, and operational track record in mission-critical environments. As AI and large-scale simulation workflows continue to drive data growth, the TFinity Plus libraries are intended to provide TACC with a scalable archival tier that can expand in place across multiple technology generations.
Horizon and Ranch: Architecture for Long-Term Scale
Scheduled to go into full production in 2026, Horizon is designed to power breakthroughs across physics, climate science, life sciences, engineering, and data-driven AI research. The Ranch archive will act as the long-term retention layer for these workloads, providing:
- Exabyte-level capacity for cold and cool data
- Cost-optimized storage for long-lived datasets
- High data durability with multi-copy and tape-based protection
- Integration with TACC’s broader storage and compute fabric through Versity ScoutAM
By combining dense tape storage, scalable object and block tiers, and policy-driven data management, TACC is positioning Ranch as an extensible platform that can evolve with future media and drive technologies without disruptive re-architecting.
Spectra TFinity Plus: Exabyte-Scale Tape Foundation
At the core of Ranch are two Spectra TFinity Plus tape libraries. The initial configuration consists of:
- Two 15-frame TFinity Plus tape libraries
- 20 LTO-9 tape drives
- Effective support for approximately one exabyte of archival capacity
Over time, the system will be upgraded to support 16 LTO-10 drives, increasing storage density and extending the platform’s life and scalability. This roadmap enables TACC to incrementally grow capacity and performance as media densities improve, while keeping the library infrastructure in place.
The TFinity Plus systems at TACC are also wrapped in custom longhorn cattle graphics and installed in a prominent location within the facility. This design choice allows TACC to use the deployment as an educational showcase for visitors and tour groups, illustrating the role of modern tape in large-scale computing environments.
TFinity Plus offers high slot density, flexible partitioning, and support for multiple tape generations, which are critical factors when evaluating long-term TCO and technology risk in exabyte-class deployments.
Versity ScoutAM and Dell Infrastructure: Policy-Driven Data Movement
On the software side, Versity Scale Out Archive Manager (ScoutAM) provides the policy engine and data orchestration capabilities required for a multi-tier, multi-petabyte environment. At TACC, Versity ScoutAM:
- Runs on 13 Dell PowerEdge R760 servers to provide a scalable and resilient control plane
- Automates data placement across:
- Five Dell ME5 storage arrays
- 16 PB of Dell ECS object storage
- The Spectra TFinity Plus tape libraries
ScoutAM enables policy-driven lifecycle management, allowing TACC to define rules for when data is moved between high-performance, capacity, and archival tiers. This is particularly important for Horizon’s mixed workloads, where simulation results, AI training data, and derived datasets each have distinct retention, performance, and cost requirements.
Versity ScoutAM’s scale-out architecture and support for open formats can reduce lock-in and simplify integration with existing HPC workflows, archival policies, and compliance frameworks.
Amazon