CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, uses Oracle Autonomous Database to support the control systems for the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
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Scientists from around the world carry out experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mile-long particle accelerator buried underground at the French-Swiss border.
In 2012, experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider discovered the Higgs boson particle, considered the last missing piece of what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics. But that model describes only 5% of the universe. One of the next big challenges for physicists working at CERN is to understand what makes up the other 95% of the universe.
The reliability of the LHC controls data and the speed at which we can gain insights from it are crucial to the science that takes place.Eric Grancher, Head of Database Services Group, CERN
The control systems for CERN’s highly complex mix of accelerators, detectors, and information-management technologies create one of the most challenging Internet of Things (IoT) environments in the world. That IoT system needs to persist and facilitate analytics on mission-critical data from more than two million signals. The Oracle Database logging all of that information is measured in petabytes and grows every day.
CERN has proven that Oracle Cloud can integrate within the large Worldwide LHC Computing Grid with up to 10,000 cores on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. CERN is also working with Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse to improve the operational efficiency of the control IoT—all with the goal of accelerating scientific discovery.
As researchers look beyond the Standard Model of physics, exploring dark matter and dark energy, CERN is investigating Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to help scale its operations to the unprecedented levels its research will require.
Having IT systems in place that help experts at CERN to spend more time focusing on the science is very important. Oracle Autonomous Database can deploy, tune, patch, and secure itself.