European Bioinformatics Institute selects SSE Telecoms

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) – which provides freely available data from life science experiments and is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory – has selected SSE Telecoms in a three year contract to deliver an uninterruptible, high-density backup and connectivity solution to EMBL-EBI’s Genome Campus in Hinxton.

EMBL-EBI performs research in computational biology and develops and maintains the world’s most comprehensive range of public life science databases, enabling researchers to analyse

and share scientific information. Due to the immense volume of information which fuels work in life science research and development, reliable backup was a pre-requisite for EMBL-EBI. As a result, the organisation turned to SSE Telecoms to deliver a cost-effective and fully dependable solution. SSE Telecoms’ well-connected data centre in Duxford, Cambridgeshire ensures that the laboratory’s most important scientific data is backed up securely, even in the event of a disaster.

“We pride ourselves on helping researchers in academia and industry to make the most of the incredible amount of data being produced every day in life science experiments – with the ultimate goal of advancing biology through basic investigator-driven research,” said Mark Green, head of administration at EMBL-EBI. “As such, it was very important to us that any supplier that we work with echoed this commitment to service delivery, innovation and professionalism. In these respects, SSE Telecoms ticked all of our boxes.”

Crucially, SSE Telecoms’ solution is able to meet EMBL-EBI’s immediate needs and is also scalable enough to support its future space and communications requirements. This will enable the organisation to ensure a continuous service to the scientific community at all times and without fail.

“We worked closely with the laboratory to define its specific needs before designing a solution that would deliver against those requirements both now and in the future,” said Chris Jagusz, managing director of SSE Telecoms. “There are millions of researchers depending on EMBL-EBI’s services, so it was clear that we would need resilient connectivity routes to link the SSE Telecoms data centre in Duxford to the EMBL-EBI data centre on the Genome Campus in Hinxton. We are delighted to be working with the laboratory and look forward to helping it continue its support of vital research into the life sciences.”