DCH_3945.jpg

DCH_3945.jpg by strobist.

Andras runs a burn-in program at he Computer Center at CERN. The site has 12PB -- petabytes, as in 12,000,000,000,000,000 bytes -- of online HD storage, and another 34PB of robotically accessible off-line tape storage.

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Comments

Peter Tsai Photography says:

wow that's a ton of storage!
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

R.Purvins says:

PB as in Petabyte, as in 10^15 bytes ? Wow
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Fanis says:

that would be quite the load of pirated movies and MP3s.. lol
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

StevenMphoto says:

SKYNET! jk that's a lot of HD storage
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Sodabowski says:

@ Farnis: dude, that's just enough to hold all the data captured during a single collision event inside the LHC.
It's amazing to see the sheer amount of sensors inside each dedicated instrument inside the LHC facility.

For this one, I'd say at least one strobe, camera right, with snoot, at the guy's level, aiming at him, plus maybe a second, bare one, at say 1/16 to light the path, right? :)
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

El Viejo Vainas says:

i wont hesitate to shoot raw with this hd
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Cedric Favero says:

CERN is like China, everytime you mention some figures we just all get vertigo ;-)

How many days would take a full restore ?
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Harry Sewell says:

so lucky and unique that you got to go and see the LHC
cant wait until it restarts!
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

KalvinKhoo says:

woW! Petabytes is awesome...
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

[P]rince says:

impressive...
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

ArtForm 2009 says:

Did you make him stand there long? The aurico will freeze his balls off :) The shot is impressive however, and I would say ready for Getty Images
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

peterkelemen says:

Let's get the facts right. The LHC is going to produce roughly 15PB worth of data per year and that is countless numbers of collisions. The disks are just there as caching layer before everything gets written to tape.
public.web.cern.ch/PUBLIC/en/LHC/Computing-en .html
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Celluloid Refuge says:

thats
12,288 terabytes
or
12,582,912 Giga bytes.
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Fort Photo says:

Damn this would have been fun to shoot.

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Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

r3g says:

O_O is that heaven?????

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Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Sodabowski says:

Uh, I missed a few tens' factors somewhere it seems :)
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

John Adkins II says:

Very cool shot! I haven't even heard of petabytes before ...that is some serious storage space!

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Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Michal Osmenda says:

it reminds me Matrix:
"guns, lots of guns"
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Gert-Jan Glazenburg says:

"strobes, lots of strobes" ?
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

mortonphotographic says:

Wow, another great shot!
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

dLux.hu says:

It's good that CERN is not in the search engine business. :)
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Cassio Rogério says:

That's a good RAID system for photo storage!!!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Zach Sarette says:

OMG Skynet is born! KILL IT BEFORE IT KILLS US ALL!!!!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

strobist says:

Thinking maybe dlux knows what he is talking about...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

dLux.hu says:

:))) Though a good search engine is not only about petabytes. It is about pigeons, too. CERN definitely lacks pigeons, so I am not afraid. Though they have really smart operators, and a good photo club. :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

peterkelemen says:

Yeah, no pigeons here! :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

naezmi says:

@Cedri© : there's no "restore" in the conventional sense -- the disks are just (mostly) a cache in front of the tapes.

BTW, the tape storage (34PB by now, in fact) is online too, meaning that everything is in the robots and can be accessed transparently.

David: great shot! :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Cedric Favero says:

@naezmi: Thanks for these explanations.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Metodico says:

Oh, I just wished the datacenter I manage looked so tidy...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Markonmersea says:

It's a little bit tidier than our computer room where I work :-)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

sputnik- says:

I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

peterkelemen says:

This is great. Last year when I shot this (also with András) I only used one flash behind him and more ambient. Thanks for the new lighting ideas!

Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

stephenkirsch says:

^
ha, funny how similar the two shots came out.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

strobist says:

Angle-wise, there are not a lot of choices!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

dLux.hu says:

But András looks totally different in the two shots. :)))
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Pappu | Photography -- says:

great work place i love to work like this.. lovely shot if u do some effects will look like matrix movie shot...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Michael Asgian says:

Tell "Szia" to András next time you see him. Will mean alot to him :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

MarcDuiker says:

Great shot, very impressive all those servers.

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Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

blur papa says:

Very creative lighting! I like how your blue gels makes every white/aluminium element match with the blue LEDs.
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

Rio-X says:

12PB?? -- Wow ...
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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