Do you want to unravel the secrets of the Big Bang, dark matter and the universe? This is what CERN uses to store more than one exabyte of data and more
- CERN uses more than one exabyte of storage space for research
- The research laboratory relies on PROMISE and Toshiba for its needs
- Toshiba will supply CERN with 20 TB hard drives
As you might expect, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory needs some pretty extensive data storage systems to support its research into fundamental questions about the universe.
With particle collision detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generating approximately 1 TB of data per minuteIt is clear that CERN’s storage infrastructure must be both high capacity and highly reliable.
Since 2008, CERN has relied on PROMISE Technology’s VTrak J5800 24-bay JBOD enclosures and Toshiba’s Enterprise Capacity HDDs for its storage needs. Storage systems have inevitably evolved over time, starting with 4TB hard drives and currently featuring Toshiba’s 18TB MG09 series hard drives.
Supporting CERN’s future storage needs
Together, these systems provide CERN’s central data center with more than one exabyte of storage space, spread over more than 120,000 hard drives, housed in more than 4,000 enclosures. This setup allows data from CERN to be shared with more than 170 research institutes around the world for analysis.
To meet increasing storage requirements, PROMISE Technology recently introduced the VTrak J5960 JBOD 60-bay enclosure, featuring ‘Greenboost’ technology to reduce power consumption by up to 30%. These will be used with Toshiba’s 20TB MG10 series HDDs, and possibly the 28TB drives in the future.
“In our quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe, we need partners who understand the importance of data storage, reliability and efficiency with solutions tailored to our unique needs,” said Eric Bonfillou, deputy group leader of the IT Fabric group from CERN.
“We continue to develop higher capacities, up to 30TB and beyond, because HDDs remain essential for cost-effectively and energy-efficiently storing the exabytes of data that CERN and the entire world produce,” said Rainer W. Kaese, Senior Manager Business Development, Storage Products Division at Toshiba.
Toshiba has released a new video showcasing its collaboration with PROMISE Technology to improve data storage solutions for CERN. You can watch this below.
