CESNET launched a new data storage facility in Brno with a capacity of 26.6 PB

Prague, 25 May 2023. The CESNET association has put a new data storage facility installed in the premises of Mendel University in Brno into operation. The storage is built on CEPH technology and consists of 57 storage servers with a total of 1,368 disks providing a gross capacity of 26.607 petabytes (PB). The total gross capacity available to users of the national CESNET e-infrastructure has thus increased to 129 PB. In total it now includes six data storage sites operated by CESNET in Ostrava, Jihlava, Plzeň and Brno.

CEPH technology, which is also deployed on most of the association’s other high-capacity storage systems, efficiently places data on a variety of servers and devices. With its distributed approach and the ability to add additional servers and capacity, it reliably stores large volumes of data and achieves high throughput.

CESNET is currently preparing the installation of another similar system in the premises of the ELI ERIC research infrastructure in Dolní Břežany near Prague.

“This new data repository, like all our other repositories, will serve scientists, researchers, academics and students. It will offer space for archiving and sharing data and will thus be one of the important types of storage in our infrastructure,” said David Antoš, Head of the Data Storage Department at CESNET.

The commissioning of the new data repositories takes place within the e-INFRA CZ project: Modernisation (identification code: CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_072/0015659 Operational Programme Research, Development and Education).

The CESNET association was founded by various Czech universities and the Czech Academy of Sciences in 1996. Its objective is the operation and development of ICT services that comprise the national e-infrastructure for research, development and education e-INFRA CZ. Integral components of its activities include research and development in information and communications technology. CESNET is an active partner in numerous international research infrastructures, such as the Pan-European GÉANT research, development, and education network, the European Grid Infrastructure EGI.eu and the European infrastructure for open science EOSC. For more details, visit www.cesnet.cz and www.e-infra.cz.