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 beyond

• CERN uses over one exabyte of storage for research
• The research laboratory relies on PROMISE and Toshiba for its needs
• Toshiba will be supplying CERN with 20TB hard drives

As you might expect, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory requires 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 1TB of data per minute, CERN’s storage infrastructure rather obviously needs to 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. The storage systems have inevitably evolved over time, beginning with 4TB hard drives and currently featuring Toshiba’s 18TB MG09 Series HDDs.

Supporting CERN’s future storage needs

Together, these systems provide CERN’s central data center with over one exabyte of storage, distributed across more than 120,000 hard drives housed in over 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 60-bay VTrak J5960 JBOD enclosure, featuring ‘Greenboost’ technology to reduce power consumption by up to 30%. These will be used with Toshiba’s 20TB MG10 Series HDDs, and potentially its 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…