Atos has announced it has been awarded a contract by UK Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) to install new SpectraLogic TFinity Tape Libraries.
The new systems will be based upon both LTO8 and LTO9 tape technology utilising Spectra Logic’s Swarm technology, which removes the need for a Fibre Channel based infrastructure.
The UK Ministry of Defence has responsibility for the programme at AWE, which is operated under contract by AWE Management Limited. The establishment has been at the forefront of UK nuclear deterrence for 70 years. It supports the UK's Continuous at Sea Deterrent and plays a key role in national nuclear security.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibits emission of nuclear yield, so AWE relies on a sciencebased and computational programme to assess the safety, security and effectiveness of the stockpile.
‘High performance computing is a critical underpinning technology in the vast majority of our sciencebased programme,’ said Paul Tomlinson, High Performance Computing at AWE. ‘Following a competitive tendering process, we are delighted to have selected ATOS and Spectra Logic as our partners. AWE has had a successful relationship with Atos going back to 2008, and most recently installed a BullSequana x1000 Supercomputer. These new Spectra Logic tape libraries provide more storage capacity in less space than our previous libraries.’
Agnès Boudot, Senior Vice President, Head of HPC & Quantum at Atos, said: ‘The installation of this advanced data archive solution is designed to work in harmony with the existing supercomputing facilities delivered by Atos and will serve to strengthen further the capability of AWE to continually evolve technical understanding via its research-based computational programmes.’
Nathan Thompson, Spectra Logic CEO, said: ‘We are pleased to partner with ATOS to provide our flagship TFinity tape library technology to AWE to store and archive their groundbreaking scientific research. Our TFinity libraries are purpose-built to push the boundaries of storage density, performance, reliability and scalability so data-driven organisations such as AWE can preserve their valuable work in science and technology for decades to come.’
