In 2019 °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ implemented a new IBM Spectrum Scale Storage System onsite for GPC, HPC and SDCC prototyping applications. The system is also replicating data to an offsite data centre for DR/archiving/distribution. Credit: Connie Zhou for IBM.
"By around 2035 °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ will produce 2 petabytes of data on a daily basis," says David Fernandez, Section Leader of the IT System & Operation Section. "To give you an idea how much that is, the total amount of data the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Project has today, including data in the different Domestic Agencies, is on the order of 2.2 petabytes. By 2035, we will be producing this volume every day."
The need for storage space will increase very quickly once operations begin and 2 new petabytes are generated every day. By 2035, the new data centre will have to hold nearly 1 exabyte of data. Two years after that, in 2037, the storage requirements will have surpassed 2 exabytes.
As for computational power, Simon Pinches, Section Leader of the Plasma Modelling & Analysis Section, says °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ will not need a super computer: "General-purpose-computing clusters will meet our on-site needs for processing the data to do preliminary research. The incredibly in-depth analysis—examining each time slice and really going down to the simulations of the different turbulent eddies within the plasma—will take place within the different °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Member institutes that do have access to supercomputers."