Case Study: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie achieves 99.9986% uptime and 24/7 scientific data availability with StarWind Software (StarWind Virtual SAN)

StarWind Virtual SAN® provides high availability for scientific data in AIDA (Aerosol Interaction and Dynamics in the Atmosphere) facility

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie’s AIDA (Aerosol Interaction and Dynamics in the Atmosphere) research facility needed uninterrupted, 24/7 access to scientific data for international researchers. Existing QNAP NAS appliances were unreliable and the team required a Windows‑native, MS Failover Cluster–compatible solution that wouldn’t consume the research budget or require extensive staff training.

KIT/IMK‑AAF deployed StarWind Virtual SAN on two servers configured with RAID 10 (16 × 4 TB SAS) and synchronous replication. The setup delivered approximately 99.9986301% uptime (about 1 hour/month of planned downtime), sustained high performance, simplified administration, and continuous global access to data for researchers.

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie

Frank Schwarz

IT Administrator