For scientists and research organizations, the ability to collect and analyze vast amounts of data is essential to discovery. Huge strides have been made in the technology, sensors, and devices used to generate data and the computer power and A.I. algorithms needed to make sense of it all. But what about data storage?

Advances in how we store data haven’t kept up with our ability to generate and process data, causing considerable concern for organizations that deal with data at petabyte (PB) scales. On-premises disk- and tape-based storage vendors continue to introduce incremental advances—but nowhere near the capacity needed for large-scale research projects. And certainly not at a price that anyone can afford.

Cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform try to solve the issue of high cost by offering many multiple tiers of storage. This only serves to complicate matters, forcing customers to implement costly data lifecycle-management solutions to figure out the most cost-effective place to store each individual piece of data. Worse, they make it difficult to predict your total cost by charging various transaction fees, including egress fees for accessing your data.

Wasabi hot cloud storage is next-generation cloud storage. It’s 80% cheaper yet faster than competitors. This breakthrough in price-performance eliminates the need for confusing storage tiers. We offer a single tier of service that is ideal for storing active data, active archives, and inactive archives (long-term storage). We’ve also eliminated egress fees and other API call expenses. You pay one set price for the data you store, regardless of how often you access it.

Physics and Space Exploration

Scientific teams the world over are awash with data. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in Chile generates over 15 TB of imaging data every night. The 10-year survey will ultimately produce 500 PB of data. That’s the equivalent of 6,650 years of continuous HD video recording!

The CERN large hadron collider in Geneva generates one petabyte of raw collision data per second. That’s about 12.8 million DVDs worth of data every minute!

Even smaller research firms use UHD video, 3D imaging, electron microscopy and other equipment to generate data-intensive files for their projects. That data deluge is quickly overwhelming conventional on-premises and cloud storage systems and budgets.

Many researchers can’t afford to keep anywhere close to all of this data using traditional on-premises storage platforms. CERN realized it could only store 135 PB with its on-premises archiving system before they went through a labor-intensive process of migrating to next-generation tape to expand their capacity. But at the rate in which they produce data, this is not a viable long-term solution.

To the Cloud, but at what Cost?
The scalability of cloud storage seems like a logical solution, but researchers that have migrated to first-generation cloud providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform) have been surprised to discover that their total cost of ownership is the same or higher than on-premises solutions.

Most cloud storage providers offer a low-cost of entry but then complicate things with multiple storage tiers (and escalating price points), plus extra fees for egress and other data transfers and transactions.

Wasabi is different. We believe cloud storage should be viewed as a utility with a flat, low pricing model that you can budget with the other services used to run your research. It’s storage made simple. So you can focus your time and budget on research, not on managing storage infrastructure.

Human Genome Sequencing

The cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped from $300,000 in 2006 to $1,000 today. With next-generation high-end sequencers, the cost will soon be as little as $100. This is a boon for researchers, but a potential nightmare for the IT professionals tasked with storing this data.

A single human genome takes up to 100 GB of storage space; by 2025, an estimated 40 exabytes of storage capacity will be required for the storage of human genome data. Wasabi hot cloud storage is the most economical way to store that data, by far. But it also helps speed up analysis of that data.

High-performance computers require an infrastructure capable of fast I/O operations without bottlenecks. This can be a challenge at petabyte scale. Wasabi is not only faster than competitors, but our Wasabi Direct Connect option enables researchers to connect directly to Wasabi hot storage from their on-premises, collocated data centers (up to 10 Gbps), or even other public cloud providers. Check out our connectivity options.

Collaborative Communities

The trend now for many scientific research organizations is to open up their virtual labs and provide researchers worldwide with fast access to the insights they’ve gathered—all in the spirit of collaboration and advancing science.

Collaborate in the cloud, knowing your data is protected.
The European Open Science Cloud takes this concept to a whole new level bringing together leading research institutes, funding agencies, and policymakers to create the largest shared data repository in history. Imagine the storage challenge of supporting 1.7 million researchers and their multi-petabyte files.

Your collaboration efforts may not measure up to Europe’s consortium, but it’s still important that researchers have quick access to volumes of data and can share their own findings in a timely manner. Wasabi’s breakthrough economics enable research teams to quickly establish active archives in the cloud, while our immutable bucket feature protects your data from accidental deletion or alteration.

Long-term Research without the Tiers

Data accumulates over time. Why spend time and money figuring out where to store it?
As research focus changes and older data becomes less important, you may need to move files around. With other storage solutions, this means dealing with complicated tiers and pricing schemes. Who has time for that? Wasabi makes it easy to manage your data with one low cost for all your storage needs. Same performance, same security, same peace of mind.

Protection you can trust
For most organizations, scientific research is a steady, prolonged process that requires flexible, expandable storage of collected data. Researchers need to know files are safe and accessible when they need them.

With Wasabi cloud storage, you’re assured eleven nines (99.999999999%) of object durability with ACL-based user authentication, and AES 256 encryption of data at rest. And we were one of the first cloud storage providers with immutable buckets, protecting your research data from hackers, accidental deletions, or theft.