They’re used by heavily by CERN to archive the LHC data. In ATLAS, we actually have to go back and reprocess that old data sometimes. So there’s dedicated softw

They’re used by heavily by CERN to archive the LHC data. In ATLAS, we actually have to go back and reprocess that old data sometimes. So there’s dedicated software that runs on the grid to stage petabytes worth of data back onto hard drives, distribute them across the grid, process and then wipe the disks again. There are even tape robots in the data center here :)