Case Study: European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) achieves faster data releases and 70% database storage reduction with Delphix

European Bioinformatics Institute uses Delphix Data as a Service to Support Research

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL‑EBI) is a nonprofit, intergovernmental bioinformatics center in Cambridge that stores and distributes massive life‑science datasets—over 50 PB and growing—serving some 2 million researchers and handling 12 million requests per month. Managing full‑scale genome datasets across distributed sites and more than 500 metadata repositories (Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and NoSQL) made preparing and releasing data slow and complex—often taking up to three months—because subsetting wasn’t an option and large datasets had to be copied and replicated between centers.

EMBL‑EBI implemented Delphix to virtualize its databases, provisioning 50+ virtual environments so engineers can access data via API in minutes and rewind to any point in time without restoring archives. The platform reduced data preparation time by about 20%, cut the database storage footprint by roughly 70%, increased release frequency and exploratory work without extra headcount, and enabled further plans for consolidation, cross‑site replication and improved backup/recovery.

European Bioinformatics Institute

Steven Newhouse

Head of Technical Services