Minimal Metrics has signed a contract with Affinity Systems to assist in the optimization and tuning of a streaming data analytics application for the IESO, the Canadian Independent Electricity System Operator. As stated on their website:
The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) balances the supply of and demand for electricity in Ontario and then directs its flow across the province’s transmission lines.
The IESO works at the heart of Ontario’s power system, connecting all participants − generators that produce electricity, transmitters that send it across the province, retailers that buy and sell it, industries and businesses that use it in large quantities, and local distribution companies that deliver it to people’s homes.
Minimal Metrics will assess and optimize the performance of a advanced streaming-data appliance responsible for the processing of millions of smart-meter readings taken constantly across the entire power grid. This appliance, built by Affinity Systems of Ontario, consists of a small supercomputer and an application that using a high-performance time-series database. The system includes massive, high-performance, tiered, solid-state, storage subsystem to achieve the desired levels of performance.
Minimal Metrics is to perform an initial end-to-end evaluation and perform initial optimization of the entire solution pipeline, from the hardware, the operating system, the database and the application.
Minimal Metrics believes our expertise in hardware and software optimization is of the highest caliber, largely due to our extensive experience in making on the world’s fastest computers even faster. We’re using these skills to address the modern challenges of data-driven science and discovery a.k.a Big Data. Technology is entering the age of “measure-everything-all-the-time” and as such, the optimization of applications such as the IESO’s represent optimization the organizations effectiveness, financial stewardship and return on investment.