The University of Manchester Picks Datadobi’s Unstructured Data Platform to Transform its storage optimisation strategy
StorageMAP enables efficient data lifecycle management by reducing the need for costly primary storage expansion
LEUVEN, Belgium, May 7, 2026 — Datadobi, the global leader in unstructured data management, today announced that The University of Manchester, one of the world’s leading education institutions, has selected StorageMAP, Datadobi’s intelligent data management platform, to transform its storage optimisation strategy. The deployment will enable the University to make significant cost savings over the next five years by efficiently identifying and archiving ageing data, significantly reducing the need for costly primary storage expansion.
As one of the UK’s leading research institutions, and a member of the prestigious Russell Group, The University of Manchester faced rapidly growing data challenges. 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.
As part of a process to improve efficiency, the University’s 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,” explained 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 University is able to rapidly and efficiently 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 clear 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,” said Michael Jack, CRO, 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.”
About Datadobi
Datadobi, a global leader in Unstructured Data Management, is revolutionising unstructured data management with its StorageMAP platform. Enterprises can make data-driven decisions that transform unstructured data from an expense and risk into a competitive advantage and revenue. Founded in 2010, Datadobi is a privately held company headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, with subsidiaries in New York, Melbourne, Dusseldorf, and London. For more information, please visit https://datadobi.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Emily Gallagher , PRSENSE, [email protected]