Large Binocular Telescope Observatory Purchases Two Starboard Storage AC72

Starboard Storage Systems, Inc., in application-crafted storage for mixed workloads, announced that the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO), in association with the University of Arizona, has deployed over 100TB of capacity behind two Starboard AC72 Storage Systems for science data products associated with the world’s most powerful telescope.

The Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona own a quarter of the observation time at the LBTO, a collaborative effort that includes astronomy and academic institutions from Italy, Germany, and the United States. The LBTO, a multiple decade project, took its first celestial images using its twin side-by-side, primary mirrors together, achieving first ‘binocular’ light, in 2008.

It is able to perform detailed analysis of dim, distant sources identifying even the faintest objects and movement patterns billions of light-years away. Since its completion, the LBTO has continued to capture increasing amounts of spatial imaging for analysis.

It recently discovered that its current storage infrastructure could no longer support its capacity and performance demands.

"When we calculated our existing data volumes and growth rates, we realized that our current system could not keep up," said Norm Cushing, software manager and scientist at LBTO. "We needed a new solution that would give us the capacity and performance needed today, while helping us to grow incrementally over the next seven years."

LBTO installed two Starboard AC72 Storage Systems, deploying a 65TB system at the Observatory and 42TBs on a second system in Tucson. With its SSD Accelerator Tier, it helped LBTO manage block and file-level data in a consistent, high-performance manner.

"We have two sites separated by 100 miles and four hours driving time, and only two administrators," said Cushing. "One of our criteria for a new storage solution was minimal administrative burden, and the Starboard Storage AC72 met that criteria by supporting both block and file data with a single system and single administrative interface."

"In our testing, the Starboard Storage system met the requirements we had spelled out for performance, ease of use and price," said Cushing. "Its flexible management and robust feature set allowed us to solve our immediate needs while establishing a framework to address future, system-wide requirements."

The AC72 Storage System, with its MAST Architecture, is designed to simplify managing mixed workload environments that include unstructured, virtualized, and structured data. It utilizes an SSD Accelerator Tier to deliver twice the performance at half the cost of legacy SAN and NAS systems.