Minicomputer Upgrade for the Clinical Resarch Database

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This application is for funds to purchase computer hardware that will support Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's institutional Clinical Research Database (CRDB). The CRDB is a relational database that was developed in-house to support the database management needs of the extensive clinical research program at the Center. The CRDB is a shared resource that currently serves the needs of 109 funded NIH grants, of which 10 are program projects or SPORE awards. The database is under continual development, and is maintained by a team of database administrators, computer programmers, and experienced data managers. The project to develop CRDB was initiated in 1991 using a cluster of VAX minicomputers, but in 1996 we successfully completed for a Shared Instrumentation Grant to upgrade the hardware to a cluster of two Digital Alpha servers. Since that time, the utilization of the database has greatly expanded, with the number of research protocols locate don the system increasing from 685 to 2811. Research records of approximately 162,000 patients are now stored on the databases. As a result, users are beginning to experience performance difficulties, and we project that these problems will increase dramatically during the next 12 months, necessitating a major hardware upgrade in early 2002. This proposal is a request for funds to upgrade the hardware platform once again to maintain the performance of the system in the face of these rapidly increasing demands.