The preservation of marine ecosystems is one of the most urgent and complex challenges for the scientific community today. To address this need, the Paris Museum of Natural Sciences and the National Institute of Integrated Marine Research (Ifremer) have partnered with NetApp, a leader in data management, to build a high-performance data storage and analysis foundation . Through NetApp technology, these institutions can monitor and conserve marine species, using cutting-edge archiving systems that enable a sustainable and safe approach.
The Museum of Natural Sciences in Paris.
The importance of data
Founded in 1793, the Paris Museum of Natural Sciences has one of the largest collections of naturalistic data in the world, with information on more than 16 million species. Thanks to the collaboration with NetApp, the museum was able to digitize this data and ensure its accessibility to the scientific community in a secure and scalable environment. With NetApp archiving systems, the museum can divide data based on frequency of use, making the information consulted most often immediately available and storing the less requested information in less intensive systems. This not only reduces the environmental impact of the infrastructure, but also allows for more effective and secure management of digital assets.
One of the key projects supported by NetApp is coral monitoring. Thanks to artificial intelligence technology and image analysis, every time a photo of a coral is uploaded online, the system is able to analyze it to identify any signs of deterioration or disease. “Our collaboration with NetApp allows us to collect and analyze an unprecedented amount of visual data, offering a real-time picture of the state of corals in different oceans,” explains the museum.
Similarly, acoustic data collected through underwater microphones on sailing vessels are stored and managed via NetApp systems. This technology allows us to monitor the movements of cetaceans, track their migratory flows and study the behavior of whales in various ecosystems. NetApp has provided a robust and scalable storage platform, which allows you to quickly analyze acoustic data and obtain crucial information for the conservation of marine species.
Ifremer and NetApp: high-performance search
Ifremer, which has more than 1,500 scientists spread across 24 locations around the world, collaborates intensively with NetApp to develop and support large-scale research projects. “We chose NetApp for their ability to manage huge volumes of data with a high level of security and flexibility, which is essential for our work,” says Benoît Morin, Datarmor project manager at Ifremer and an engineer specializing in artificial intelligence.
Morin adds that NetApp has enabled Ifremer to implement storage systems that ensure access to data quickly and securely, while maintaining high sustainability. For this project, Ifremer reduced its six storage systems to two, thanks to the NetApp systems’ ability to optimize space and simplify management. “A unique and robust system like NetApp’s reduces the risk of failure and enables greater operational efficiency, which is crucial to our research activity,” explains Morin.
With the data collected, Ifremer is developing a marine genetic atlas that will cover over 4,500 species, a project made possible thanks to the storage infrastructure provided by NetApp. “Thanks to NetApp’s support, we can offer our scientists unprecedented computational capacity, which allows us to accumulate and analyze data much faster,” concludes Morin.
Blue Economy
Ifremer’s approach to the “blue economy”, i.e. economic and environmental sustainability applied to the oceans, benefits significantly from NetApp technology. NetApp’s system, which allows computational resources to be allocated according to the needs of each project, ensures that scientists can access data only for the time necessary, then freeing up space for new studies. “Thanks to NetApp, we can deploy resources flexibly, making infrastructure available to a greater number of projects and optimizing costs and efficiency,” explains Morin.
The collaboration between the Natural Sciences Museum of Paris, Ifremer and NetApp represents an innovative example of how technology can support scientific research and environmental sustainability. NetApp’s advanced use of storage systems has transformed data management, giving scientists and researchers the ability to monitor and protect marine species like never before.
