Case Study: NASA Ames Research Center achieves cost-effective, scalable management of 33% annual data growth with Carahsoft

NASA Ames Research Center - Customer Case Study

NASA Ames Research Center faced rapid, ongoing data growth—about 1.6 PB per month and roughly 33% annual increase—while needing to retain approximately 72 PB of research data indefinitely amid limited data center floor space and power constraints. Carahsoft stepped in to address these scalability, cost and preservation challenges by sourcing a tape-based archive solution built around Spectra T950 libraries and associated media and lifecycle-management services.

Carahsoft’s implementation deployed multiple Spectra T950 enterprise tape libraries (expanded to six units with 92 LTO-5 drives), Spectra Certified Media with Carbide Clean, and Spectra Media Lifecycle Management integrated with the SGI DMF active-archive environment. The solution enabled non-disruptive upgrades, supports about 1,000 concurrent users, reclaimed over 1,400 square feet of data center floor space, and delivered a space- and energy-efficient platform to cost-effectively manage continued 33% annual data growth.

NASA Ames Research Center