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:

Comparing StorWIS to Table-top Storage Devices
Feature/
System

StorWIS

Local NAS

Local NAS
Risk

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