Hewlett Packard Enterprise to power Poland’s first digital collection of preserved plants

June 7, 2021

HPE powers the digitalization of the collection of nearly half a million plants as part of a program to accelerate critical environmental research globally, making the collection available in a single location online to anyone interested

In this article

  • Pomeranian University, University of Gdańsk, and University of Szczecin join forces to make half a million specimens publicly accessible
  • Pioneering project will aid scientific breakthroughs
  • HPE Nimble Storage dHCI delivers better performance and lower total cost of ownership

Warsaw, Poland – June 7, 2021 – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced that it has been selected to power the digitalization of the collection of nearly half a million plants as part of a program to accelerate critical environmental research globally. This initiative, named Herbarium Pomeranicum, will create Poland’s first digitized collection of preserved plant specimens and is led by a first-of-its-kind partnership between three of the country’s top universities. The team leading this groundbreaking work turned to HPE Nimble Storage dHCI to host the project’s data with simplicity and efficiency. The Universities leading this project join a growing number of companies that have selected HPE Nimble Storage dHCI to support demanding workloads. In Q2 earnings results, HPE announced that HPE Nimble Storage dHCI continues to see ongoing momentum, with 250 percent revenue growth year-over-year.

Nearly half a million of preserved specimens will be integrated digitally and made available in a single location online

Preserved plant specimens serve as a vital research source in biodiversity, ecology, and environmental study, such as climate change, food safety, and the impact of humans on the natural environment. However, current storage methods make it difficult for experts to access these important collections, hindering scientific breakthroughs. The 468,000 preserved specimens are currently held separately by three Polish institutions – the Pomeranian University in Słupsk, the University of Gdansk, and the University of Szczecin – located hundreds of kilometers apart. Under the collaboration, all three collections will be integrated digitally and made available and easily accessible in a single location online to anyone interested, from research institutions, entrepreneurs, to students and teachers worldwide.

The project requires a solution that can consolidate high-performance compute, massive storage, and reliable networking. HPE Nimble Storage dHCI (disaggregated HCI) will address these demands with independent scaling of compute and storage for a seamless project expansion. Each site will deliver 256 TB (terabytes), which is an equivalent of data held in seven National Libraries of Poland or approximately 64 million digital copies of ‘Pan Tadeusz’. 

“We are thrilled to launch this initiative and bring incredible value to the country’s research and environmental study,”
said Zbigniew Osadowski, Professor and Rector of the Pomeranian University in Słupsk. “The HPE solution meets all of the challenges and needs arising in the project, making the digitalization of the collection possible in the simplest way”.

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI will also help deliver a simple cloud-like management of the IT infrastructure with an ability to consolidate apps and workloads from a single pane of glass, with no network bottlenecks or performance lags. With the support of the HPE Timeless Storage program, the project will avoid costly rip-and-replace cycles and keep the storage continuously up-to-date with the technology upgrades every three years, or sooner, if required, while reducing the environmental impact of the IT infrastructure.

HPE’s solution simplifies the project’s operations and saves time, resources, and money

“With our technology, we help organizations transform and simplify their operations to save time, resources and money,” said Jan Lewandowski, Public Sector Sales Lead from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Poland. “We’re extremely proud to power the first digital collection of plant specimens in Poland. It is a great milestone in the digital transformation of the country.”

The project is sponsored by Digital Poland program and has been made possible thanks to a national and European grant of more than 25 million PLN (6.6 million USD).

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is a category-defining platform powered with artificial intelligence. HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is designed from the ground up to deliver the HCI experience, but with more flexibility and better resiliency and performance than traditional HCI. Organizations like National Christmas Company an PetSure are choosing HPE Nimble Storage dHCI over competitive HCI platforms for business-critical apps and mixed workloads because it overcomes the limitations of traditional infrastructure with intelligent management, easier scalability, and cloud data protection.

Additional Resources

Read more here about recent updates to HPE Nimble Storage dHCI, including network automation and increased performance.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform as-a-service company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way people live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions, with a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, to help customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: www.hpe.com.

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