Quantum Corp, a 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 UK office.
“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.
The UK’s National Environment Research Council (NERC) commissioned a custom-built research vessel to facilitate cutting-edge scientific projects at the Earth’s poles. Operated by BAS, the new ship—the RSS Sir David Attenborough—is equipped with specialized laboratories and instruments that enable researchers to study water properties, sea animals, the sea floor, the atmosphere, and more.
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.”
