Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), a leading national research center in Germany, is working with IBM to tackle its massive data processing, storage, and management challenges. They’re using IBM’s software technology to construct a Big Data and Analytics architecture, helping scientists to gain access to a trove of atomic structure and X-ray data.

IBM’s General Manager of Storage and Software Defined Systems, Jamie Thomas explains, “IBM’s software-defined storage technologies can provide DESY the scalability, speed and agility it requires to morph into a real-time analytics service provider.”

DESY builds particle accelerators that help study the structure of matter. DESY’s latest 1.7 mile long PETRA III accelerator will be able to capture and process more than 20GB of data per second. With the assistance of IBM research and IBM software-defined storage technology Elastic Storage, DESY has grown its research capabilities and can provide an accessible ecosystem for research and analysis-as-a-service via the cloud to users worldwide.

DESY and other international partners who are involved in building the more data extensive, European XFEL, an accelerator that emits ultra-short X-ray flashes, will utilise the scalability of this system.

“We expect about 100 petabyte per year from the European XFEL,” states Dr. Volker Gülzow, head of DESY IT.

“A typical detector generates a data stream of about 5 gigabit per second, which is about the data volume of one complete CD-ROM per second,” he continued. “And at PETRA III we do not have just one detector, but 14 beamlines equipped with many detectors, and they are currently being extended to 24. All this Big Data must be stored and handled reliably.”

The kind of research that DESY has been fuelling will provide greater insights into how matter is perceived with sure benefits in the field of medicines, materials and energy.

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(Image credit: Kai Erik)