All CSB servers are housed within the Simches Research Building data center, which features a secure card access system, cooling/humidity control and a centralized uninterrupted power supply. The data center has 3 Cisco Catalyst 6513 Series Switches with redundant power supplies that can support up to 1,731 Gigabit connections.

The CSB Biocomputing Platform maintains three 42-U racks with the following servers and storage systems:

• Seven HP DL-320
• Two HP DL-160 servers
• An HP DL-360 server
• An HP DL-370 G6 storage server: total storage capacity 6 terabytes
• An HP NAS 2000 with two MSA 20 RAIDs: total storage capacity 12 terabytes
• An Apple Xserve with XRAID: total storage capacity 7 terabytes
• A DVD Jukebox with 225 loaded DVDs: total storage capacity 3.5 terabytes
• An HP MSL5030 tape library with HP OpenView DataProtector software for automated server backup.

The total online storage capacity available is over 25 terabytes. Data is backup up on tapes and replicated to the Massive Array of Disks (MAD) system maintained by the Partners Research IT group. All components are connected via a secondary local Gigabit network to provide rapid access to data.

We rely heavily on server virtualization, which provides increased flexibility due to the ability to move Virtual Machines (VMs) between physical hosts. This technology enables better management of hardware utilization and provides better performance. Additional benefits include the reduction of power consumption and a "greener" data center.

Each of our servers is monitored continuously from an off-site server based on the open-source Nagios and Munin applications.