CERN's search for the "God Particle" continues, and Progress® SonicMQ® and Progress® FUSE® are hard at work behind the scenes.
The largest physics experiment ever is underway at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN). It's the hunt for a particle (scientific name is Higgs Boson) which gave the universe its form. Because it is so fundamental in shaping the universe, some call it the "God Particle".
Leading the search in this exciting experiment is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a gigantic scientific instrument that spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 meters underground. CERN has a no-failure policy, and their systems must run like clockwork, whether they are sending over accountancy software or whether they could change the universe. For this, CERN has turned to two key Progress solutions for help.
Reliable Communications with SonicMQ
Progress SonicMQ forms the communications backbone of CERN's Technical Infrastructure Monitoring (TIM) system, which designed to alert researchers in the event of an emergency. All the information from the monitoring systems is funneled through this channel and distributed to the relevant client systems.
CERN Project Manager Anna Suwalska said this of SonicMQ: “We tested it and were convinced by its availability features, especially with regard to clustering and load balancing, and its flexible configuration options.”
Open Source Integration with FUSE
CERN relaunched the LHC in December 2009 with Progress FUSE underpinning all grid monitoring systems. CERN needed a flexible solution that would integrate all of its operational systems, and the open source FUSE fit the bill.
James Casey, Technical Architect at CERN explains: "Progress Software's open source solution offers us the ability to build on what we already have and support our enterprise operations."