Nexsan SATABeast Arrays at UK Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics

Nexsan Corporation have been selected by the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG).

The Nexsan systems will provide secure storage for huge quantities of scientific research data on the genetic causes of diabetes, obesity and other common ailments as part of a major collaboration project with leading research bodies around the world.

Scientific analysis of genetic material generates large output files. These files are each about 50MB in size and have to be kept online so they can be accessed by researchers worldwide. As a result of this activity, the WTCHGs data yield has soared from 20GB a day a couple of years ago to a current daily level of 200-300GB.

"As a result, scientific, research-focused organisations like ours are faced with extremely complex storage management tasks," states Dr Bardsley, IT manager for WTCHG. "We selected the SATABeast for its advanced mechanical design, which not only provides excellent cooling, reduced drive vibration and high levels of energy efficiency, but also makes it extremely reliable."

"We have research programmes that have been running now for three years or more," he adds. "And you cannot put a price on how valuable that is. Nexsan has the industry-leading storage density which makes it ideal to handle our data."   

With a 120-node Linux cluster and 25 core servers, the WTCHGs IT department is responsible for ensuring end user data processing needs are sustained. The new collaboration project required storage consolidation so that researchers could access DAS on-line. The arrays are directly attached to a server which feeds into a FC switch for distribution to other servers. Overall data capacity has been increased to 42TB, 30TB of which has already been consumed by the collaboration project.

"We are delighted to have been selected by a world-leader in scientific research like WTCHG," said Brendan Kinkade, VP marketing at Nexsan. "Our SATABeast is an extreme density, energy-efficient storage array designed to excel in demanding storage environments precisely like this one."

WTCHG purchased the SATABeasts through S-Store Limited, a Nexsan partner and UK-based reseller.