SHI delivered EPRI a storage platform tailored to the demands of cutting-edge energy research

When EPRI's core storage platform reached the end of its lease, SHI helped the research nonprofit replace it with a solution designed to last.

Challenge:

For more than 50 years, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has led the charge in ensuring access to safe, reliable, affordable, and clean electricity. As a nonprofit research organization serving the global energy sector, EPRI’s work spans everything from nuclear power to solar, wind, and electric vehicles. Behind the scenes, its infrastructure team supports massive amounts of data processing and storage, enabling complex R&D projects and data science initiatives that serve utilities and the public good.

By 2024, one of EPRI’s core data center storage systems was approaching the end of its lease and contract term. The existing platform no longer met performance expectations for modern GPU-powered workloads, data analytics, and high-performance computing research. EPRI also wanted to reduce its rack footprint to improve energy efficiency and avoid the disruptive, resource-intensive process of frequent storage refreshes.

To address these challenges, the organization required a storage platform capable of delivering high performance and low latency for a variety of compute-intensive workloads. The solution also needed to scale efficiently without necessitating costly, time-consuming data migrations. Predictable, long-term operating costs were essential, as was alignment with both technical and operational requirements for the next five years and beyond.

Solution:

SHI worked closely with EPRI to assess its storage needs and right-size a solution that balanced performance, scalability, and cost predictability. Initially, EPRI had been presented with an oversized configuration by the manufacturer, but SHI’s engineering resources provided in-depth briefings and technical evaluations to ensure the final design was exactly what the organization required.

The chosen Everpure platform met EPRI’s performance needs while offering a simplified operational model. Its architecture supports seamless, non-disruptive upgrades, meaning future controller refreshes can be completed without time-consuming data migrations. This not only reduces technical debt but also ensures researchers can stay focused on their work instead of waiting on IT infrastructure changes.

Importantly, the shift from a consumption-based model to a capital expenditure (CapEx) purchase was structured in a way that made financial sense for EPRI. The platform’s long-term predictability in operations and maintenance costs aligned with the organization’s roadmap, ensuring it could plan confidently for the future.

Outcome:

EPRI’s migration to the new storage platform was completed on time and under budget, avoiding costly lease extensions on the outgoing system. The new solution has delivered measurable improvements, including better-than-promised deduplication ratios and consistently low latency for disk transactions.

These performance gains translate directly into faster results for EPRI’s researchers, allowing them to complete projects more efficiently and move quickly to new initiatives. The reduced rack footprint has also helped advance EPRI’s energy efficiency goals.

Perhaps most importantly, EPRI now has a storage foundation built for longevity. With predictable O&M costs and seamless upgrade capabilities, the organization anticipates that this may be the last major storage refresh it will need for many years—a major win for both its budget and its mission to drive innovation in the energy sector.