The University of Manchester cuts costs by tapping Datadobi StorageMAP data management platform
The University of Manchester has selected StorageMAP, Datadobi's data management platform, as it looks to transform its storage optimisation strategy.
It says that the deployment will enable it to make significant cost savings over the next five years by identifying and archiving ageing data, reducing the need for costly primary storage expansion.
With research processes generating up to 15TB of data per day, and overall data volumes increasing year on year, the university was approaching a critical five-year refresh of its primary NAS storage infrastructure, from 10PB to at least 20PB, and at significant cost. Its Research IT Data Management Team identified an opportunity to implement intelligent lifecycle management to automate the identification and archiving of inactive data.
“The challenge was identifying which datasets among billions of files could be safely moved to archive storage,” says Wayne Smith, Research Data Management Lead at the university. “A manual approach would have required scripting through massive volumes of data, consuming significant staff time and introducing risk through human intervention. StorageMAP gives us the visibility and confidence to make these decisions efficiently, transforming how we manage our research data.”
By implementing StorageMAP, the tniversity is able to quickly scan billions of files and petabytes of data, identifying ageing and unused datasets suitable for archiving. By removing this data from primary storage, system administrators can now spend significantly less time on manual processes and implement lifecycle management decisions more effectively, with visibility into storage utilisation patterns across the research environment.
"Research intensive universities face unique data challenges, with volumes and associated infrastructure costs growing at unprecedented rates," says Michael Jack, CRO at Datadobi. "The University of Manchester has demonstrated how intelligent data management can transform storage economics. Rather than simply buying more expensive primary storage, they're using StorageMAP to make data driven decisions that align resources with research priorities while achieving substantial cost savings."
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Data management will be a key focus area at our sister title RTIH’s 2026 Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out the 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
