Brocade has announced that CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research, has selected Brocade MLXe Core Routers as part of a network infrastructure upgrade to support its high throughput computing (HTC) requirements and a data environment that exceeds 15 petabytes (15 mn gigabytes) per year.

According to the Web site, Whatsabyte.com, a single petabyte is equivalent to “20 million 4-door filing cabinets full of text.”

To share these data with thousands of scientists around the world, tens of thousands of computers distributed worldwide are being harnessed in a distributed computing network called the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG).

At CERN, the current non-blocking capacity of the core is in the region of 4.2 Terabits per second (Tbps), and has doubled in the last two years. CERN projects that its capacity will reach more than 10 Tbps in 2011.

“Brocade’s MLXe solution met our stringent requirements (we test products to destruction), and will not just deliver a solution for our immediate needs but also gives us a platform to 100 GbE when the time is right,” commented Jean-Michel Jouanigot, Communication Systems Group Leader, IT Department, at CERN.

“With the addition of the Brocade MLXe solution, CERN is future-proofing its network to ensure that it continues its work, and Brocade is delighted to be part of this journey,” said Alberto Soto, vice president EMEA at Brocade.