Case Study: NIKHEF (National Institute for Subatomic Physics) achieves a scalable, high-performance 10GbE HPC network processing 15 PB/year with Brocade

Brocade Helps Nikhef Discover Secrets of the Universe

Nikhef, the Netherlands’ National Institute for Subatomic Physics based in Amsterdam, conducts large-scale astroparticle and collider research and operates as a Tier‑1 LHC data center. Faced with rapidly growing datasets (more than 15 PB analyzed yearly) and a critical edge-switch bottleneck that limited 1–10 Gbps analysis to ADSL‑like performance, Nikhef needed a network upgrade that could support thousands of researchers, provide IPv6, and meet requirements for virtual routing, flow control, open standards and many VLANs.

Nikhef deployed Brocade MLX series routers in the core and Brocade FCX 48‑port edge switches with 10GbE modules, completing testing and a full rollout in about six weeks. The upgrade delivered a reliable, scalable HPC environment—enabling analysis of >15 PB/year, a 10GbE network in under six weeks, up to 30% more processing and storage capacity, potential to triple analysis throughput, successful IPv6 rollout, fewer security/scaling issues, and a clear path to 100GbE.

NIKHEF

Dr. David Groep

Senior Research Scientist, Grid Computing