Case Study: Diamond Light Source achieves high-speed beamline data buffering and scalable high-performance storage with NetApp EF540 Flash Array

The UK’s National Synchrotron Facility, Diamond Light Source, Turns to Netapp Flash Storage for a High-Speed Data Buffer

Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility, generates massive, high-speed datasets from its beamlines used for advanced scientific research. Facing the need to capture and temporarily store data locally from two beamlines before moving it to a central high-performance file system, Diamond required a high‑IOPS, low-latency buffer that could handle intense, bursty workloads and integrate with its existing storage environment.

Diamond deployed two NetApp EF540 Flash Arrays (12×800GB SSDs) as the high-speed buffer, delivering submillisecond latency and more than 300,000 IOPS, managed via SANtricity. The solution was quick to implement, easy to scale and administer (one array currently provides 7.5TB raw), and proved cost‑effective—eliminating I/O bottlenecks, ensuring reliable local capture of beamline data, and smoothing transfers to central storage.

Diamond Light Source

David Bond

Computer Systems Administrator