Case Study: LIGO achieves reliable high-performance data storage for gravitational-wave research with Nexsan

LIGO Caltech manages 6.4 PB of gravitational-wave data with Nexsan

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) at Caltech, a research facility funded by the National Science Foundation, faced the challenge of storing and processing the massive volumes of data required to prove Einstein's theory of gravitational waves. Their project had already generated 6.4 PB of data comprised of over 1.7 billion files, necessitating a storage solution that was high-performance, reliable, power-efficient, and cost-effective. To meet this need, they worked with vendor Nexsan and their partner Westlake Technologies.

Nexsan, through Westlake Technologies, implemented its E-Series storage systems to serve as block storage for LIGO's central data archive. The solution provided the required high capacity and reliability at an affordable price, integrating into a tiered storage architecture. As a result, LIGO continues to achieve new levels of storage performance and reliability for its data-intensive research, boosting ROI with scalable capacity and controlled costs. The partnership has deployed over 26PB of Nexsan storage for Caltech's operations over nine years, supporting groundbreaking discoveries like the first observation of gravitational waves from colliding black holes.

LIGO