Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA
Sun Storage Keeps Data Available, Secure at Neurobiology's Leading Edge
Located at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) is one of the world's foremost research centers for the study of the brain. LONI is a leader in advanced computational algorithms and quantitative mapping techniques that are yielding important insights into brain structure and function.
Customer Challenges
- Provide secure, reliable storage for hundreds of terabytes of data
- Establish hierarchical storage management for efficient data allocation and rapid access
- Improve storage flexibility and scalability to meet expanding data needs
- Minimize storage footprint
- Integrate with diverse systems, including fiber channel link to DR site
- Reduce costs for storage media
Solution
LONI implemented a hierarchical storage environment using Sun StorageTek tape libraries. The tape libraries are integrated with disk storage and include several different density drives to match data requirements to tape capacity. Sun fibre channel disk arrays form part of the LONI disk storage subsystem.
Business Results
- Increased productivity for researchers through improved data availability
- Maximized tape utilization and minimize media costs with mix and match capability
- Installed expandable, small-footprint solution to accommodate increasing data volumes
- Established mirrored disaster recovery site for enhanced security
Story Details
Every human brain is different, and no human brain stays the same for even a nanosecond. Brain researchers at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) at UCLA are transforming digital scans of living human brains into terabytes of data that are costly to acquire, impossible to replicate, and immeasurably valuable to medical science.
LONI has now scanned more than 10,000 subjects for its database, representing millions of dollars in MRI time alone. The volume of data acquired, stored, and backed up now totals close to one petabyte. Research based on this data, which helps pin down how illnesses progress and how healthy brains differ from ailing ones, has already yielded important insights that have improved our understanding and treatment of such terrible diseases as AIDs, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.
With so much at stake, keeping the data secure and available to researchers worldwide is a critical imperative. To meet this storage challenge, LONI has increasingly turned to Sun Microsystems, the company providing much of the server hardware and software used in its computational work.
Sun is helping LONI establish a hierarchical storage environment that includes both tape and disk storage. A Sun StorageTek PowderHorn 9310 tape library provides a cornerstone for LONI's storage capability. To boost performance even further, and to increase flexibility for expansion, LONI recently added a Sun StorageTek StreamLine SL8500 library system and Sun StorEdge 3510 disk arrays to its storage foundation.
The mix of tape and disk storage allows LONI to allocate data to different storage media based on user needs. By moving older or less relevant data to tape storage on the SL8500, LONI makes more efficient use of its storage capacity, provides fast access from disk storage to its most sought-after data, and minimizes tape media costs. When current users need access to tape-based data, the SL8500 quickly migrates the data back to disk and makes it available to users in 20 seconds or less.
The modular SL8500, which currently holds five Sun StorageTek 9840B tape drives, gives LONI the flexibility to expand up to 64 drives and mix and match different drives to meet changing needs while protecting existing investments. The SL8500 also features a dense slot configuration and small footprint that help LONI store expanding data volumes without increasing datacenter floor space.
The SL8500's four robotic arms provide redundancy that ensures data availability. High-performance robotics enable the SL8500 to keep pace with peak periods and demands for higher throughput. In addition, the SL8500's open architecture enables LONI to link it via fibre channel to a mirrored backup site that protects the data in the event of a disaster. LONI has also integrated the SL8500 with a storage management console and several legacy disk storage devices.
LONI is also taking advantage of the connectivity and high throughput of SunStorEdge 3510 fibre channel disk arrays deployed in its mirrored backup site. The Sun disk arrays use a modular approach that keeps costs low and supports flexible expansion. They also safeguard LONI's data with a range of fault-tolerant capabilities, including dual hot-swap power and cooling, hot-swap disk drives, and redundant RAID controllers with mirrored cache
With its Sun-powered storage infrastructure, LONI has established a flexible and expandable storage infrastructure designed to meet its expanding data requirements for years to come. Through its longstanding relationship with Sun, LONI is positioned to continue its breakthrough research over the long range.