A new data facility that is so advanced it can hold approximately one Pbyte of information — the equivalent of 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with text – has been opened to safeguard the University of Bristol's research data.
The £2 million facility, named ‘BluePeta’, has been specifically designed for the university through collaboration with technology suppliers SCC and IBM in response to the increasing volumes of research data being created and the need to curate this information securely over the long term.
Ian Stewart, director of the university’s Advanced Computing Research Centre, said: ‘Research funding bodies are increasingly asking universities to retain research data to allow its use, reuse and repurposing over the long term. BluePeta allows this process to take place in a central and secure environment, enabling researchers to maintain data integrity — the accuracy and consistency with which they store their data.’
