Behind The Scenes At CERN The World's Largest Particle Physics Laboratory

MEYRIN, SWITZERLAND - APRIL 19: A general view in the CERN Computer / Data Centre and server farm of the 1450 m2 main room during a behind the scenes tour at CERN, the World's Largest Particle Physics Laboratory on April 19, 2017 in Meyrin, Switzerland. Experiments at CERN generate colossal amounts of data (the LHC experiments produce over 30 petabytes of data per year). The Data Centre stores it, and sends it around the world for analysis. Archiving the vast quantities of data is an essential function at CERN. CERN has more than 130 Petabytes of stored data (the equivalent of 700 years of full HD-quality movies). CERN does not have the computing or financial resources to crunch all of the data on site, so in 2002 it turned to grid computing to share the burden with computer centres around the world. The centre maintains disk and tape servers, which need to be upgraded regularly. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)