We have three different methods and currently around 300Gb worth of assets:
1) our RAID server helps in case of hard drive failure (so far, so good!). Through a weird quirk of fate, we now have two different RAID arrays, for a combined total of about 1.25 Tb. 2) We just started backing up to a 1 Tb disk. Our IT consultant comes in weekly and swaps it out, putting it into a fireproof safe which is moved offsite to a data storage facility. We have three disks total. 3) I also backup the assets to San Diego Supercomputing Center, with whom we have an arrangement. I manually perform those backups, but because our infrastructure is sloooooowwwww, it takes me approximately 3 weeks to send all 300G to SDSC. Fortunately, I rarely need to do this, since I normally only send the new or modified assets. But I just completely changed our directory structure, so I'm doing a fresh upload. Only 24 more hours to go! (the moral being, if backing up through offsite uploads, make sure your assets and file structures are consistent and in the format you want it, and you have a nice, fat, internet connection) SDSC does, I believe, offer storage for humanities institutions. There is usually a cost associated with this, though if the project is of particular interest to them, they will sometimes award free allocations: http://www.sdsc.edu/resources/Resources.html Perian Sully Collection Information and New Media Coordinator Judah L. Magnes Museum -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mary Bloodworth Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 12:42 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Offsite Digital Image Archive Options I am writing to ask if any of you -- like us here at the Folger Shakespeare Library -- are at small institutions and without major digital asset management or IT infrastructures but nevertheless are engaged in active digital imaging? If so, are you willing to talk (offlist or on) about your backup / archiving schemes? We are working on establishing scalable systems architecture and backup strategies for digital images of collection materials, and would love to compare notes with others who have some version of a 2-3 tier backup strategy. Our current situation is this: For each digital image of collection material, our Photography and Digital Imaging lab produces a minimum of two images: a ca. 100-120 mb unretouched master, and a ca. 80-100 mb cropped & color-corrected derivative. We are looking for a solution that will permit us to archive the masters offsite. We're currently running tape backups and taking them to a staff member's house. However, tapes sitting on the bookshelf in a Folger staff member's house isn't good enough anymore. What we'll need is at least 1.5 - 2 TB of space. This can be a dark archive because we won't need frequent access, though infrequent access would be necessary. I looked at the MCN-L archives and found one thread from November, in which some spoke of Amazon S3. Any thoughts on this, or a different service that's cost-effective? With thanks in advance, Mary Bloodworth Head of Information Services Folger Shakespeare Library _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
