PIC has successfully completed the migration of its tape storage system from Enstore to CTA (CERN Tape Archive). The operation involved more than 64 petabytes of scientific data from 18 different research groups.

PIC had relied on Enstore since 2007, when it established a collaboration agreement with Fermilab (FNAL) to help evolve the software into a site-independent solution. Over nearly two decades, Enstore became a core component of PIC’s storage infrastructure, supporting its role as a Tier-1 centre for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) through the end of Run 3 and providing long-term data preservation for the many scientific communities that rely on PIC.

The migration to CTA brings an important performance improvement, with read and write speeds close to twice those achieved with the previous system. It also provides a more sustainable long-term framework, supported by a community of physics data centres working together with CERN on the continued development of the technology.

The deployment of CTA is one of the first steps in preparing PIC’s infrastructure for the next major challenge in particle-physics computing: the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which will produce data volumes far beyond those handled during the current LHC programme.

With this milestone, PIC strengthens its capacity to provide reliable, high-performance mass storage for the scientific projects and research communities it supports.