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

Ligo Caltech Uses Nexsan and Westlake Technologies to Observe the Gravitational Waves of Colliding Black Holes

LIGO Caltech, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, needed a storage platform capable of handling massive volumes of research data for its gravitational-wave experiments. Its work on detecting signals from colliding black holes and other cosmic events required high-performance, reliable, and power-efficient storage to manage 6.4 PB of data across more than 1.7 billion files.

Working with Westlake Technologies, LIGO deployed Nexsan storage solutions including SATABeast, hybrid systems, and the current Nexsan E-Series as block storage in a tiered archive with flash and tape. Nexsan helped Caltech improve storage performance, reliability, and ROI while controlling infrastructure and energy costs, and over nine years Westlake says it deployed more than 26 PB of Nexsan solutions across Caltech research operations.

LIGO

Stuart B. Anderson

Senior Research Scientist