After almost five years of placing its trust in Lenovo's data center solutions, the European Space Agency (ESA) has renewed its contract with Lenovo and continues to rely on Lenovo NeXtScale System for processing large volumes of data generated as a result of the Gaia Project. Launched on 19 December 2013, the Gaia Project’s aim is to provide a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the cosmic space by recording a billion stars and generating the most accurate map of the Milky Way to date. In order to create an unprecedented stellar census, the project requires advanced technology that allows for a vast volume of information to be managed both accurately and error-free.   Lenovo NeXtScale removes the challenges that come with handling large quantities of data and offers increased performance, efficiency and flexibility. Lenovo’s data-processing solutions also allow for multiple workloads to be controlled through its advanced server functions.  

  Lenovo has been working with the ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre – specifically on the Gaia mission – since 2011, facilitating the processing of the scientific data generated during the mission. This data-processing work is an essential element in obtaining Gaia's final data file, which, once the mission is complete, will come to more than a petabyte (a million gigabytes or the equivalent of around 200,000 DVDs). The systems from Lenovo used in this data processing work are flexible, scalable and allow for safe and reliable data processing.   Lenovo's collaboration with the ESA is a further proof point of the company’s commitment and ambitions in the High Performance Computing market.  In 2015 Lenovo opened a Global HPC Innovation Centre in Stuttgart as a base to permanently foster R&D and application benchmarking. Last year Lenovo also joined the European Technology Platform for High-Performance Computing, a think-tank with the objective to take an active role to define research priorities and action to help the European Commission define and excel in HPC which plays a pivotal role in stimulating Europe’s economic growth.  

“We have always placed our customers at the heart of everything we do. That is why we constantly evolve and invest in innovation in order to provide our customers with the most competitive solutions on the market, that will help them achieve success in their business or mission. Collaborations such as the one we have with ESA help us maintain our leadership and continue to be an important benchmark in the high performance computing industry."