EIDF Case Study

EIDF enables world-leading data-driven innovation with storage solutions from Spectra Logic.
overview
The Edinburgh International Data Facility is the set of data and compute services, organized as a Private Cloud that underpins the Data-Driven Innovation Programme at the University of Edinburgh. The EIDF provides a rich environ­ment of Data Science, AI computing and long-term data management services for its many partners from the public, private and academic sectors. The programme is helping organizations tackle challenges for industry and society by doing data right and supporting Edinburgh in its ambition to become the data capital of Europe.

Spectra’s TFinity is uniquely positioned to provide the scalable infrastructure for our long-term archive and storage services offered at the EIDF. It builds on a great long-term relationship we’ve had with Spectra.

Mark Parsons, Director of EPCC, University of Edinburgh

The Challenge

The Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF) is possibly Europe’s first regional data innovation centre and is based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Services range from private cloud compute to data management to safe haven services and bespoke projects. EIDF data management services enable users to archive and re-use data, offering long-term storage and preservation for the Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) programme’s data assets while growing EIDF’s analytics-ready collection to make data available for researchers and innovators. To support their full range of research services, EIDF required a data storage solution that enabled them to be as agile and responsive as possible to the needs of their many stakeholders across the DDI programme, which involves collaboration between industry, the public sector and academia.

The Solution

To set the foundation for their long-term storage strategy, EIDF implemented a joint solution from HPE and Spectra Logic. EIDF deployed two four-frame Spectra TFinity ExaScale Tape libraries with LTO-8 tape drives and media. The TFinity systems are uniquely designed with robotic pickers called High Performance Transporters – each tape library contains two to support dual operations. Instead of individual tape slots, the library has shelves of TeraPack containers— ten tape cartridges bound together in a single tray. The TeraPacks allow for the library’s higher tape storage density in a smaller footprint than would be possible with a traditional design. This compact architecture allows the robots to travel a linear path, loading and unloading multiple tape cartridges at a time for maximum efficiency. The new solution enables EIDF to meet their most challenging long-term scalable storage requirements.

Environment Snapshot

  • Two four-frame Spectra® TFinity® ExaScale Tape Libraries
  • LTO-8 tape drives and media
  • BlueScale® standard encryption
  • Cerebras Systems AI Supercomputer
  • HPE DMF software
  • HPE Apollo Systems
  • Superdome Flex Servers
  • HPE Ezmeral
  • Container Platform
  • Petabytes of mixed fast storage
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