Quantum Tape Systems
Safeguard Data Collected at Earth’s Poles on a Custom-Built Research Vessel
Quantum Corp. (NASDAQ: QMCO),
a global leader in unstructured data and video solutions, today announced that British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is
implementing Quantum Scalar® i3 tape libraries
on the brand-new RRS Sir David Attenborough research vessel to
back up vital scientific data collected at the Earth’s poles. The tape
libraries provide scalability for large data volumes, minimize the storage
footprint on a space-constrained ship, and facilitate easy transport of data
back to the organization’s
“The Scalar i3 library allows us to have the library and server
blade in one box. We can just plug it into the network and go from there,” says
Jeremy Robst, IT support engineer for the British Antarctic Survey.
Planning a Data
Backup Solution for a New Research Vessel
The
The
BAS IT team needed to implement all the necessary information technology for
the ship’s research “cruises,” which typically last between six weeks and two
months. Providing sufficient data storage and backup capacity was a top
priority. “We estimated that researchers would produce roughly two orders of
magnitude more data than on our previous vessel,” says Robst. “That might mean
anywhere from 10 to 100 TB during a single research cruise. We had to supply
storage and backup equipment that could handle that data.”
Protecting Large Data Volumes with Quantum
Scalar Tape Systems
After
considering tape solutions from multiple vendors, the IT team selected Quantum
Scalar i3 tape libraries. The decision was partly based on the integrated,
converged design of the Scalar i3, which combines the library and a server
blade in a single enclosure. That design greatly simplifies installation.
The
IT team is implementing two Scalar i3 libraries on the Sir David
Attenborough. One supports the Veeam® software used for
daily backups from disk storage. The other library uses a Scalar linear tape
file system (LTFS), which supports file-system operations.
Gaining
Compact Storage with LTO-8
Making It Easy to Transport Data Back to
The
IT team can make copies of backed-up data using LTFS. Then, at the end of the
research cruise, the team can simply pack up the copies in their suitcases and
bring them back to the
Preparing
for the Maiden Voyage
The
coronavirus pandemic slowed the installation of the IT environment on the ship,
but the IT team is ready to put the new storage environment through its paces.
Says Robst: “We’re hoping that by the end of the year, we’ll have taken the
vessel to sea to really experience how these libraries can help assist with
some important research.”
Bengaluru, India: Oct. 26, 2020