eResearch South Australia switches on largest research storage system in the state

eResearch South Australia has implemented a 4.3 petabyte storage system to support its science research projects, some of which generate very large data sets.

The platform was supplied by Hitachi Data Systems (HDS). According to eResearch SA, it now has the largest research data storage capability in the state.

eResearch SA executive director Mary Hobson told CIO Australia that as it starts adding data, the system can be expanded to support at least 10 petabytes of capacity over the next five years.

Agriculture soil science, particle physics, medical research and humanities project data will be stored in the system.

“Particle physics tends to generate lots of data but size is not necessarily a measure of importance because quite a lot of our research generates small data sets. However, we are using this system because it is accessible to all in the academic sector,” she said.

The organisation has been running a pilot project using the system since November 2012.

“As soon as we have finished the commissioning stage, we will have live data collections on the system by the end of 2013,” Hobson said.

“HDS came out on top because it has a very good management interface kit for this kind of storage.”

eResearch SA’s storage node is one of seven nodes established under the $50 million federal government Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) scheme to create a national network of infrastructure to support data intensive research.

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