The
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, which undertakes research into
the genetic basis of common diseases, has deployed two
Nexsan 21TB SATABeasts, high-capacity storage system to prevent
data loss.
The decoding of the
human genome
has opened up a world of possibilities that have transformed
scientific research in a way that could not have been contemplated
a few short years ago. SATABeast is being deployed as part of the
research organisation's insurance policy to protect its valuable
research.
Tim Bardsley, Wellcome Trust IT manager, said, "Our expanding
research programmes and increasing data are forcing an exponential
growth in our data storage requirements, a phenomenon seen right
across the scientific research industry."
Keeping research data safe is critical. "We have research
programmes that have been running now for three years or more. Raw
data is our lifeblood, and that is why it is safeguarded so well,"
Bardsley said.
The Nexan products have been deployed to provide researchers
with online Direct Attached Storage, which is directly attached to
Wellcome Trust server. This feeds into a fibre channel switch for
distribution to other servers. "That has increased our overall data
capacity to 42 terabytes - and we are using around 30 terabytes of
that already" Bardsley said.
The SATABeast provides both Fibre Channel and
iSCSI
connectivity, It runs Nexsan's
AutoMAID energy-saving technology, which Nexan said places the
disk drives in an idle state, reducing power consumption and
operational costs.
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