A comparison of data-access platforms for the computing of BaBar experiment at the Italian Tier1

Performance, reliability and scalability in data access are key issues in the context of Grid computing and High Energy Physics (HEP) data analysis. We present the technical details and the results of a large scale validation and performance measurement achieved at the INFN Tier1, the central computing facility of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Research (INFN). The aim of this work is the evaluation of data access activity during analysis tasks within BaBar computing model against two of the most used data handling systems in HEP scenario: GPFS and Scalla/Xrootd.