Spitzer Space Telescope Stores 2PB of NASA Data

Nexsan announced that the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Spitzer Science Center (SSI) is meeting its data storage challenges by using Nexsan SATABoy and SATABeast storage systems. SSI has decreased storage management and maintenance costs of two petabytes of data by employing Nexsan’s storage systems. The resulting savings have enabled better resource utilization for other strategic projects surrounding this important NASA mission.

The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, or SIRTF) was launched into space by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on August 25, 2003. Throughout its mission of discovery, Spitzer has obtained images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. These images have enabled visibility into regions of star formation, the centers of galaxies, and newly forming planetary systems.

The storage of these unique and research-critical images is managed by Caltech, and SSI consulted with ESS Direct to select a combination of Nexsan SATABeast and SATABoy RAID storage systems for their reliability, cost efficiency and simplified operation. During each new Spitzer research activity, SSI stores approximately 100 TB of images in its Nexsan storage environment, which today is composed of more than 2,000 drives, 130 controllers and 65 chassis.

"In choosing a storage vendor, we wanted to reduce storage costs, but we also needed very reliable technology to reduce IT resource drain," said Eugean Hacopians, senior systems engineer, Caltech SSI. "It’s understood that one of the best ways to shrink storage management costs is to reduce system and component failures so that IT professionals are not relegated to servicing equipment."

"We’ve had petabytes of data stored on our Nexsan systems for more than seven years and have experienced excellent reliability. The systems have helped reduce storage maintenance costs, which are less than what they might have been with alternative systems," added Hacopians.