Collaboration Agreement between Sun and PIC

UAB's Port d'Informació Científica and Sun Microsystems have signed a collaboration agreement to create and maintain a reference centre for the massive storage of scientific data.

15/10/2008

Sun Microsystems and UAB's Port d'Informació Científica (PIC) have signed an agreement to create a Reference Centre for the Massive Storage of Scientific Data which will give support to international research communities. The centre's storage capacity consists of one petabyte (one million gigabytes), with the possibility of a twofold increase in this capacity each year to meet the needs of scientists managing large volumes of data such as those generated by the CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Located at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, PIC is the result of a collaboration between the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation and the Catalan Government. Since December 2003 it is the Tier-1 Level Regional Centre in Spain for the processing and storing of data originating from the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). From its location at CERN, Europe's leading particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, the LHC reproduces conditions similar to those existing during the Big Bang which will allow researchers to study the origin of matter. At this very moment, PIC and CERN are sharing a total amount of 10 gigabits of data per second.

Under this new agreement, Sun Microsystems awards PIC the category of Sun Reference Centre for the Massive Storage of Scientific Data at a global level. As explained by Manuel Delfino, Director of PIC: "This is an important step for PIC to be able to fulfil its objective as a coordinating centre of scientific computing in a massive data environment, especially those produced by LHC. The Sun data servers operated by PIC are integrated into the worldwide computing grid through Java-based software. In this environment it is necessary to maintain unprecedented reliabilities and operating results using techniques we will explore together with Sun Microsystems."

For Josep Fígols, Director of the northeastern branch of Sun Microsystems Ibérica: "It is very gratifying for us to form part of this project with PIC which, from Barcelona, will in the future extend its radius of action to other scientific disciplines and use its large storage capacity in the fields of mechanical engineering, cosmology, astrophysics, medicine, etc."

Massive Storage of Data, Virtualisation and Integral Management Software

The centre operates with Sun Fire X4500 disk servers, the open source Solaris operating system and Sun xVM Ops Center virtualisation and integral management software technology, all of which provide solutions of the best performance, reliability and facility to develop and operate the massive storage tasks required with the LHC. For PIC, the agreement's framework includes being able to use Sun Microsystem's "Early Access" (for software) and "Beta Testing" (for hardware), which will guarantee a direct access to the highest engineering levels of Sun Microsystems, as well as allow for the introduction of new functionalities according to any needs that may arise.

A Worldwide Reference in Grid Computing Technology

In addition to the key work carried out with LHC, UAB's PIC is the operational coordination centre for Spain and Portugal of the international Enabling Grid for E-SciencE (EGEE), co-funded by the EU Research Framework Programme and considered one of the main references in Grid Computing in Spain.

As Manuel Delfino stated: "Grid Computing technology is similar to how electrical networks are structured, where several of the main data processing centres branch out to interconnect with computers being used by researchers in different countries. This makes it possible to store and manage enormous volumes of data in centres around the world which process this data and then globally and individually provide researchers with what they need for their research. This represents a huge improvement in the pace at which researchers can work."

PIC is considered a strategic centre by the institutions which promoted, created and developed it. For this reason up to two million euros is invested into the centre each year. A team of over 25 highly qualified professionals supervise the service operations which have achieved one of the highest degrees of reliability of the eleven Grid Tier-1 centres located around the world. Members of the Management Committee governing PIC include the Commissioner for the Department of Universities and Research of the Catalan Government, Directors of CIEMAT and IFAE, and the UAB Vice-Rector of Strategic Projects.