A new data facility that is so advanced it has the capacity to hold approximately one petabyte of information — the equivalent of 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with text or 13.3 years worth of HD-video footage, will open today [2 February 2011]. 

The £2 million project has built a state-of-the-art facility, named ‘BluePeta’, which will safeguard the research data assets of the University of Bristol. The University is one of the first higher education institutions in the UK to install a high-capacity data storage facility on this scale.

BluePeta has been specifically designed for the University through a 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.  

The facility will enable researchers from a wide range of disciplines to improve the security and efficiency with which their data is accessed, stored and retrieved.

Professor Guy Orpen, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at the University, said: “Bristol is a leading research-intensive university and our academics are involved in some of the world’s most challenging and groundbreaking research. 

“The data we generate is fundamental to our operation. We have invested substantially in an enterprise-grade storage solution which will ensure the knowledge our researchers create is preserved in a resilient, cost-effective, scalable and secure environment.”

Users of BluePeta will come from all disciplines, from scientists working on aspects of climate change to physicists using the Large Hadron Collider. The facility will also be used by arts and social sciences researchers who need to archive images, video files and datasets, including one of the largest collections of photographs capturing China’s history.

Dr Ian Stewart, Director of the University’s Advanced Computing Research Centre, added: “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.”

The facility will be opened by Professor Guy Orpen, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at 12.30 pm on 2 February 2011. If you would like further information on using this facility contact Caroline Gardiner, the University’s Academic Research Facilitator, email caroline.gardiner@bristol.ac.uk, tel, 0117 331 4375.