Toshiba partners with PROMISE for optimal data storage at CERN
Eve Goode
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Toshiba Electronics Europe has announced a new video that showcases its partnership with PROMISE Technology to deliver enhanced data storage capabilities to CERN.
CERN is the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and owns one of the largest and most powerful particle accelerators, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The new video explores how the partnership has been crucial in fulfilling CERN’s mission by delivering storage systems and hard drives to support its research.
CERN’s collaboration with Toshiba
The LHC’s collision detectors run 24 hours of the day, seven days a week and generates approximately 1TB of data per minute, necessitating robust and reliable data storage.
Since 2008, CERN has used PROMISE Technology’s 24-bay JBOD VTrak J5800 HDD enclosures. Some of the earliest systems are still operating.
CERN has also used Toshiba’s Enterprise Capacity HDDs, starting with capacities of 4TB[1] over ten years ago to the MG09 Series Enterprise Capacity 18TB HDDs.
During this time, the two companies supported CERN in scaling up the storage capacity at its central data centre, which sends this data to more than 170 research institutes around the world for analysis.
Currently, the storage system has reached a capacity of more than one Exabyte, which is a million Terabytes, with more than 120,000 HDDs sitting in more than 4,000 JBOD enclosures.
The VTrak J5960
Building on this success, PROMISE Technology developed a new 60-bay JBOD model called the VTrak J5960.
The JBOD storage system incorporates ‘Greenboost’ technology, a suite of energy-saving innovations that can reduce power consumption by up to 30%.
In the HDD application lab, Toshiba completed early testing of PROMISE Technology’s 60-bay JBOD with its Enterprise Capacity MG10 Series 20TB HDDs which confirmed data, cooling performance and power efficiency.
The confirmations made by Toshiba aligns with the global push towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly data management practices.
“Solutions tailored to our unique needs”
Eric Bonfillou, Deputy Group Leader, CERN’s IT Fabric group stated: “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.”
“Reliable and energy-efficient way”
Alice Chang, Chief Marketing Officer, PROMISE Technology commented: “The energy crisis is now a real challenge to all enterprises, including CERN. The energy crisis is now a real challenge to all enterprises, including CERN.”
She added: “The VTrak J5960 offers a well-rounded solution to solve this dilemma and we are confident that Toshiba’s Enterprise Capacity HDDs, installed and operated in this JBOD will support CERN’s future need for growing data storage capacity in a reliable and energy-efficient way.”
“Will remain essential for storing the exabytes of data”
Rainer Kaese, Senior Manager Business Development, Storage Products Division, Toshiba said: “At Toshiba we are very proud to support CERN’s activities with Enterprise Capacity HDDs.”
He added: “We continue to develop higher capacities, up to 30TB and beyond, as HDDs are and will remain essential for storing the exabytes of data that CERN and the entire world produce in a cost-effective and energy-efficient manner.”
Focus of the video
The video is in celebration of the collaborative work with CERN with the focus remaining on the technological advancements and the future of data storage at the research facility.
Toshiba and PROMISE Technology are committed to providing solutions that ensure the LHC’s research continues without interruption, contributing to our understanding of the universe.
