Actually Kyle did you see that you can now put your stuff on a drive, snail
mail it to Amazon and they will upload it to an S3 instance for you.
Bandwith problem "solved".

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Agreed on both of Rosalyn's points.
>
> I'm wary of the hot backup options discussed in this thread for large
> quantities of data. First of all, hot backup is expensive -- disks
> aren't that inexpensive, and after you add power and space, it gets
> much worse. Start keeping many copies, and the price gets much worse.
> LOCKSS is good for protecting articles since that is what it is
> designed to do. For a variety of reasons that go beyond cost, I think
> it's a hopeless model for backup.
>
> Even if money is no object, bandwidth is a huge issue. Transferring a
> few GB at a time is not a big deal, but it takes awhile. Transfer
> large quantities and you run into trouble quickly. Bit rot is not so
> much of an issue because you can check integrity regularly. For
> example, a bottom of the line EC2 instance could continuously monitor
> your S3 files.
>
> Of course, there is the whole practicality aspect -- backup must be
> convenient as well as effective. Different solutions strike me as
> appropriate to different situations, but as much as I hate tapes,
> they're effective, cheap, and efficient presuming you don't keep them
> on site and verify them.
>
> kyle
>
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 8:43 AM, Rosalyn Metz<[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > I have to agree with Ed.  You should have a good policy in place for
> backing
> > up your data.  Just throwing it on a server isn't a policy.
> >
> > At the same time I would have to disagree with Ed.  You should look at S3
> as
> > if it was your own server.  What is the guarantee that you supply to your
> > users with your own server.  The snap server we use here (instead of S3)
> is
> > the back up to a back up system already in place.
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Edward M. Corrado <[log in to unmask]
> >wrote:
> >
> >> 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
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >
>
>
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Kyle Banerjee
> Digital Services Program Manager
> Orbis Cascade Alliance
> [log in to unmask] / 503.999.9787
>