StorWIS Research Data Storage Service
StorWIS, the Weizmann Institute’s central storage platform for research information, stores computational data and provides Weizmann researchers with the following key features:
- Cost-effective storage
- Secondary storage for data acquisition devices
- Enables HPC (WEXAC) pre- and post-processing
- Easy collaboration between labs
- Petabyte scalability
The uses listed above represent best StorWIS use cases. Applications, for which StorWIS is not intended include:
- Computational high throughput storage – this service is provided via the Weizmann Institute’s WEXAC HPC platform
- Structured relational databases (MySQL, Microsoft SQL, Oracle) – these are not to be stored on StorWIS. Please refer to our Server Hosting page for more information
- Application hosting – again, please refer to our Server Hosting page for more information
Ordering & Registration
StorWIS service can be ordered with 100 GB minimum storage. Further storage space can be ordered in 100 GB increments.
Orders are to be placed via the Internal Services portal. The following Internal Services codes are available:
- StorWIS Lab folder
- StorWIS Lab Member folder
- StorWIS Collaboration folder
- StorWIS Private folder
Note: registration can only be performed by your departmental administrator.
Payment
Billing will be performed at the beginning of each month, and will be aligned with all standard Weizmann Institute billing operations. Users will be billed as per the actual amount of storage allocated during the month preceding billing. Feel free to review our Computing Charges page for precise service charges.
Comparing StorWIS to Table-top Storage Devices
Over the past few years, we have seen tremendous growth in the use of small- to medium-scale table-top or small-office NAS (Network Attached Storage). Though NAS devices tend to be relatively low-cost in terms of price per TB of storage, there are additional parameters other than price that need be considered when comparing them to the Weizmann Institute’s StorWIS service.
The following table compares StorWIS with standard, small- to medium-scale table-top NAS devices, and highlights the risks of using local NAS solutions:
| Feature/ System |
StorWIS |
Local NAS |
Local NAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service (on site, or must devices be sent out for storage lab service?) |
On site | Either on site or requiring delivery of device to a remote lab | It may take days to have a device back and online |
| Availability (free of single points of failure?) |
Yes | No | Lack of storage availability; data loss |
| Net capacity | Precisely as per Internal Services registration (minus the storage space taken up by snapshots) | Typically 0.75 of declared gross capacity, due to redundancy features | Usable storage capacity lower than anticipated by end users |
| Scalability (what are the maximum scale-up options? Will numerous devices be required over time, to manage research data?) |
Petabytes in a single name space | A few dozen TBs (we've encountered cases, in which devices deployed on site do not support new disk upgrades offered by their vendor, and may therefore no longer be scaled up) | Cumbersome implementation of numerous name spaces per single lab |
| Monitoring | IT Branch | End user responsibility | Lack of service availability; data loss |
| Antivirus | Built-in | Additional licensing required | Data corruption |
| Device operating system maintenance | IT Branch | End user responsibility | Time and materials at lab's expense |
| Backup | To be available in future at extra cost | At extra cost | Limited previous version retrieval capability; data loss can occur in cases of severe file system failures/outages |
| Power redundancy | Fully supported | Dependent on inclusion of redundant power supply | Lack of storage availability; data loss |
| Authentication | Encrypted, by universal Weizmann Institute user ID | Opt-in for encryption, universal user ID not supported | System exposure to hacking |