HPE Nimble Storage dHCI to Power Poland’s First Digital Collection of Preserved Plants

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP has been selected to power the digitalization of the collection of nearly half a million plants as part of a program to accelerate critical environmental research globally.

This initiative, named Herbarium Pomeranicum, will create Poland’s first digitized collection of preserved plant specimens and is led by a partnership between 3 of the country’s universities.

The team leading this work turned to HPE Nimble Storage dHCI to host the project’s data. The universities leading this project join a growing number of companies that have selected this sysem to support demanding workloads. In 2Q earnings results, HPE announced that Nimble Storage dHCI continues to see ongoing momentum, with 250% revenue growth Y/Y.

Preserved plant specimens serve as a vital research source in biodiversity, ecology, and environmental study, such as climate change, food safety, and the impact of humans on the natural environment. However, current storage methods make it difficult for experts to access these important collections, hindering scientific breakthroughs.

The 468,000 preserved specimens are currently held separately by three Polish institutions – the Pomeranian University in Słupsk, the University of Gdansk, and the University of Szczecinski – located hundreds of kilometers apart. Under the collaboration, all three collections will be integrated digitally and made available and accessible in a single location online to anyone interested, from research institutions, entrepreneurs, to students and teachers worldwide.

The project requires a solution that can consolidate massive storage and reliable networking. Nimble Storage dHCI (disaggregated HCI) will address these demands with independent scaling of compute and storage for a project expansion. Each site will deliver 256TB, which is an equivalent of data held in 7 national libraries of Poland or approximately 64 million digital copies of Pan Tadeusz. 

“We are thrilled to launch this initiative and bring incredible value to the country’s research and environmental study,” said Zbigniew Osadowki, professor and rector, Pomeranian University in Słupsk. “The HPE solution meets all of the challenges and needs arising in the project, making the digitalization of the collection possible in the simplest way.”

Nimble Storage dHCI will also help deliver a simple cloud-like management of the IT infrastructure with an ability to consolidate apps and workloads from a single pane of glass, with no network bottlenecks or performance lags. With the support of the HPE Timeless Storage program, the project will avoid costly rip-and-replace cycles and keep the storage continuously up-to-date with the technology upgrades every three years, or sooner, if required, while reducing the environmental impact of the IT infrastructure.

“With our technology, we help organizations transform and simplify their operations to save time, resources and money,” said Jan Lewandowski, public sector sales lead, HPE Poland. “We’re proud to power the first digital collection of plant specimens in Poland. It is a great milestone in the digital transformation of the country.“

The project is sponsored by Digital Poland program and has been made possible thanks to a national and European grant of more than 25 million PLN ($6.6 million).

Nimble Storage dHCI is a category-defining platform powered with AI. It is designed to deliver the HCI experience, but with more flexibility and better resiliency and performance than traditional HCI. Organizations like National Christmas Company and PetSure are choosing Nimble Storage dHCI over competitive HCI platforms for business-critical apps and mixed workloads because it overcomes the limitations of traditional infrastructure with intelligent management, easier scalability, and cloud data protection.

More here about recent updates to HPE Nimble Storage dHCI, including network automation and increased performance.