Overview

The University of Queensland (UQ) is ranked within the top 50 universities globally and is recognised for its commitment to providing knowledge leadership and building a better future. UQ is renowned for its focus on excellence across all its endeavours and for fostering an environment where students are empowered to become innovative thinkers and leaders. The university's research has a significant global impact, addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges. UQ receives the second-highest total research funding among Australian universities, with all its research outputs meeting or exceeding global standards.

The Research Computing Centre (RCC) at UQ is at the forefront of facilitating groundbreaking discoveries through advanced computation, data analytics and other digital research tools. Its primary objective is to provide a cutting edge technology platform that enables researchers to efficiently achieve their goals.

Prior to the collaboration with IBM and Gold Partner, OneTeam IT, RCC was using outdated Oracle Tape Libraries for data storage, which were no longer effective or supported. Facing the need for a more robust and cost effective solution UQ implement two IBM Tape Libraries, each equipped with 5 Frames and 11 IBM Enterprise Tape Drives.

Initially, UQ were unsure of whether OneTeam IT would add value to the supply of the IBM solutions compared to sourcing directly, however they are happily on the record stating that:

Arguably, OneTeam IT stand out to me as the most capable vendor partner I've ever worked with.

The decision to select IBM Tape solutions over Cloud Storage came after a thorough assessment by OneTeam IT, where the Tape solution proved to be significantly more cost-effective while achieving maximum performance.

The new IBM Tape Library infrastructure offers significant improvements over the previous system, including greater data density (40PB per site) and robust data archiving capabilities for the next decade. Additionally, the ‘AirGapped’ copy of data enhances security against ransomware attacks.

Key Outcomes

Comparative Cost Reduction: A more economical solution for long-term data storage compared to cloud storage options, significantly reducing UQ's storage costs.

Cyber Security Enhancements: A significant reduction in the risk of ransomware attacks on UQ's extensive research data collections.

Advanced Data Archiving: Substantially greater data density and storage capacity (40PB per site), ensuring robust data archiving.