Case Study: Wellcome Sanger Institute scales genomic data sharing with Ceph and Canonical support

The Wellcome Sanger Institute enables sharing of genomic research worldwide with Canonical-supported Ceph storage

The Wellcome Sanger Institute, a premier centre of genomic research, needed expert support for its evolving Ceph object storage system. The challenge was to reliably scale its in-house Ceph deployment beyond its initial 3 PB capacity to meet unexpectedly high demand, improve performance, and enable its scientists to securely share huge volumes of genomic data worldwide through the S3 protocol.

With the support of Canonical, the Institute successfully scaled its Ceph storage to over 20 PB of raw capacity across three production clusters. Canonical provided high-level support, connecting the Institute's team directly with engineers to resolve complex issues, which allowed for rapid upgrades and improved performance. This solution enabled seamless, global data sharing for collaborative research, significantly reducing barriers to entry for other scientists and moving the Institute away from the logistical challenges of shipping physical discs.

Wellcome Sanger Institute

Matthew Vernon

Principal System Administrator