The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

Sun StorageTek Tape Drive Technology Cost-Effectively Handles Huge Data Volume for Major Scientific Undertaking

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world's largest particle physics research center where scientists study the building blocks of the Universe. Founded in 1954, CERN now includes 20 member states and has cooperation agreements with over 30 other nations. CERN created the World Wide Web and has made discoveries that have applications in cancer therapy, medical and industrial imaging, and manufacturing processes and materials.

Customer Challenges

Capture and store data at the rate of up to one gigabyte per second, 15 petabytes annually
Maintain researchers’ access to data around-the-clock
Keep data available over several years to allow physicists to complete all their analysis
Maintain data integrity
Efficiently and cost-effectively accommodate a huge growth in data volume expected with new project

Solution

To capture and store the vast amount of data to be generated from its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project, CERN tested and purchased Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drives and Sun StorageTek SL8500 modular library systems. The high throughput, high-capacity tape drives will store 15 petabytes of data that CERN expects to generate annually from the project. The library system will provide scalability and high-density data storage in a small footprint.

Business Results

Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drive provides 4 times the throughput of existing tape drives
Sun StorageTek T10000 tape media stores 1.5 times the storage capacity of existing tape media. Thanks to this increased capacity, CERN will save nearly CHF 4 million per year in media cost.
Improved data manageability from ability to interconnect SL8500 tape libraries
Space savings from small footprint of SL8500 modular library system. Compared with the former PowderHorn library system, the SL8500 will allow to reduce the required floor space by 80%, using the same tape drive technology.
Efficient scalability to accommodate the huge amount of data for the years to come

Products and Services

Story Details

When the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) switches on its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in late 2007, the giant underground detectors will register hundreds of millions of particle collisions per second in an effort to study matter under conditions similar to the early Universe shortly after the Big Bang. Each of the four detectors in what will be the world’s largest particle accelerator will need to store data at the rate of hundreds of megabytes per second. When including analysis and simulation data this adds up to 15 petabytes of data annually, nearly one percent of the entire world’s digital data collected every year.

To handle this mind-boggling amount of data, CERN had acquired tape technology from multiple storage vendors, one of whom was Sun. However, growing data volumes necessitated higher throughput and higher storage capacity than were possible with the organization's existing 54 Sun StorageTek T9940 tape drives and 10 Sun StorageTek PowderHorn tape libraries. As with its existing Sun technology, a newer solution would need to maintain the integrity of CERN’s experimental data over long time periods and make that data available 24x7 to researchers worldwide. Most of the estimated 10 billion CHF price tag on the LHC goes to hundreds of giant state-of-the-art superconducting magnets, needed to guide the particle beams around the accelerator. So the IT staff needs to be resourceful and find the most efficient and economical ways to store its data.

" The performance of the Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drive is impressive and would handle our data capture phase very well. We expect the new drive will expand our data collection by a factor of 10 without having to work 10 times as hard to keep it all working. "

— Charles Curran, Storage Consultant, CERN

The center’s past positive experiences with Sun StorageTek solutions and the performance anticipated with the Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drives gave CERN reason enough to evaluate the T10000 drive as part of the larger storage solution it would implement.

The Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drives performed impressively during tests conducted by CERN’s IT staff, assuring them that the new drives are well-suited to handle data generated by the LHC project. With a capacity of up to 500 gigabytes of uncompressed data and a data throughput rate of 120 megabytes per second, the Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drive provides a 250 percent increase in density and a 400 percent increase in throughput over the Sun StorageTek T9940B tape drives. In addition, CERN anticipates it will significantly lower media costs per year by purchasing 30,000 T10000 cartridges versus 75,000 T9940B cartridges. Fewer tape cartridges will reduce the number of tape libraries that must be purchased, providing additional savings per year.

Thanks to the forward compatibility of the Sun StorageTek T10000 cartridges with next-generation tape drive technology, CERN will garner greater savings by extending the life of the new media. In addition, with 150 petabytes of data expected to be generated in the first decade of the LHC project, use of Sun StorageTek's modular library will enable CERN to connect multiple tape libraries for easy manageability and provide a scalable, high-density system with a small footprint.

CERN scientists believe the LHC project will change our view of the Universe, providing new insights and possibly technological breakthroughs that may positively impact humankind. Though uncertain of the mysteries they’ll uncover, they are certain that the data that is the key to unlocking those mysteries will be properly protected and accessible thanks to Sun technology.