Rosalyn's post  made me think of one more thing.... if you are looking 
into outside entities (such as we are), what are the terms of service 
and what guarantee do they offer they won't lose your data? I believe 
that A3 does not offer any guarantee, so if you go with them, you 
probably want to have some other form of storage as well. Even if they 
offered a guarantee, what good is it once they loose your documents you 
were trying to preserve?

Edward Corrado



Rosalyn Metz wrote:
> Hi Edward,
>
> Might I suggest you look into cloud computing services if you're looking at
> different options. (I know you're all shocked I suggested it).  If our
> budget weren't so abysmal (and going to get worse) we would be using it
> right now rather than the snap server we purchased with leftover funds.  The
> benefits of using the cloud is of course the elasticity it offers you.  The
> negative is that you have to pay to put your files into the cloud and then
> pay again to take them out (and since we've already been slashed 30% and are
> guaranteed another slash...that idea was shot down).
>
> Of course the major player out there is Amazon S3.  The problem is that you
> can't use S3 via Amazon's Web Management Console.  But there is a company
> called RightScale (http://www.rightscale.com/index.php) which has a web
> management console that allows you to upload files quickly and easily
> without having to write scripts and what not.
>
> Anyway, just my two cents.
>
> Rosalyn
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 8:10 AM, Edward Iglesias
> <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>   
>> As I was trying to figure out what to do with half a terabyte of
>> archival TIFFS it occurred to me that perhaps someone else had this
>> problem.  We are starting to produce massive amounts of digital
>> objects (videos, archival TIFFS, audio interviews).  Up until now we
>> have been dealing with ways to display them to the public.  Now we are
>> starting to look at "dark archives" like OCLC's digital archive
>> product.  I would welcome any suggestions from those of you who have
>> dealt with this on an archival level.  It's one thing to stick the
>> stuff up on a server, but then what?  Our CIO suggested storage
>> appliances like this one
>>
>>
>> http://www.drobo.com/products/index.php
>>
>> but I am wary of the proprietary RAID system.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>>
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Edward Iglesias
>> Systems Librarian
>> Central Connecticut State University
>>
>>