When designing data storage solutions for High Performance Computing (HPC) environments, IT architects strive to balance complex and often conflicting requirements. The need to manage a skyrocketing amount of data, along with the goals of controlling cost and immediate data availability, can make it difficult to meet HPC application demands within the constraints of today's IT budgets. To help customers address an almost bewildering set of architectural challenges, Sun has developed the Sun Storage and Archive Solution for HPC, a reference architecture that can be easily customized to meet specific application goals and business requirements. This article is intended for IT managers and storage architects familiar with HPC applications and data requirements in the organization. It assumes that the audience has a technical background and some familiarity with issues surrounding the task of configuring systems and storage.