Spectra Logic announced that the Brooks Lab at the University of Michigan has deployed a Spectra^®T680 Tape Library and Spectra Verde^® Disk Solution to archive research data. Brooks Lab, a theoretical chemistry lab at one of the top public research institutions in the United States, has relied solely on Spectra’s enterprise tape and disk solutions to record and archive their research data for more than seven years.

Data is the driving force of the Brooks Lab and protecting it became essential to continuing their research and theoretical experimentation. Brooks Lab was formed in 1980, and since its inception, staff researchers have produced nearly 400 publications. Research and simulation data produced by the lab must be protected and preserved long-term.

The Brooks Lab also oversees the development of six different research programs, one of which focuses on high-performance computing on large parallel and distributed supercomputers.

“For nearly a decade our Spectra storage library and disk solutions have met or exceeded our research group’s storage needs at an affordable price point,” said David Braun, Lab Manager, Brooks Lab at University of Michigan.

Brooks Lab first deployed a Spectra solution in 2011 when they installed a T380 Tape Library with LTO-5 tape drives and media. They have since upgraded to a Spectra T680 library. Spectra’s tape library architecture has interchangeable parts, enabling the Brooks Lab to upgrade seamlessly from one library to another as their organization and data grows.

Full backups directly to tape are conducted on a weekly basis by the lab. The Brooks Lab stores shared applications across a 7,000-core cluster and keeps nearly a petabyte on spinning disk.

“Spectra helped Brooks Lab implement an archive solution for their critical research data, and we’re honored to be a trusted partner in helping them preserve this vital research for the past seven years,” said Spectra Chief Sales Officer Brian Grainger Our flexible data storage solution has evolved with the lab as their data sets have increased, and will continue to support the university in protecting their information throughout every phase of their growth cycle.”

Brooks Lab is a theoretical chemistry lab led by primary investigator Charles L. Brooks III in the Department of Chemistry and Biophysics Program at the University of Michigan.

The university, a renowned Big 10 school based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is considered one of the foremost research universities in the United States. Research in the Brooks Lab is focused on the application of statistical mechanics, quantum chemistry, and computational methods to chemically and physically oriented problems in biology.