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Re: Digital data storage



Hi, Andrew:

In response to your request, we have some input.

My firm, Maspix, Inc., is an Internet-focused ASP (Application Service
Provider). In the commercial world, we provide secure, on-line access to
digital repositories for a wide variety of content of all object file types,
including full multimedia hosting.

With regards to adequate storage and access, from our perspective, I can
share with you our policies and practices. We basically offer two levels of
service: high-availability and standard-availability. Both options provide
for content storage support in on-line, near on-line and off-line
capacities.

The high-availability option provides our clients with a dedicated, secure
web gateway to their content over the Web. This service is based on our
hosting and maintaining our clients' content on secure servers and mass
storage systems in our Canadian data center as the primary copy. A secondary
copy is maintained in another physical location (in the U.S.) in a
replicated repository (using real-time data replication) with server
mirroring providing fault tolerance and automated fail-over for disaster
recovery/disaster avoidance. Both sites archive to tape with a second copy
stored off-site in an approved, environmentally controlled storage facility.
Certain clients also wish to have us burn a CD or DVD and provide that copy
back to them. Some clients even request that we provide them with an
archival tape copy as well.

The standard-availability option provides all of the above with the
exception of not having a second site and a second, replicated repository.

We are certainly intimate to the emotional issues surrounding the word
"adequate". By definition, I would consider an archival storage effort
inadequate should one come upon a time when a version is needed and the
original, or copies thereof, is/are no longer available or no longer exist
(extinct data?).

I do hope this helps you in your investigations. Even though we are not a
library, a museum, a governmental agency or an educational institution, we
operate with the sensitivity and respect that we hope mirrors these fine
organizations.  Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact
me directly. Best of luck.

Regards,

Chuck Cheney
Executive Vice President & Director of Operations
Maspix, Inc.     -     Corporate Headquarters
10 Roanoke Road, Laurel Springs, NJ 08021-2827 (USA)
Phone:  856.346.0047;  Fax:  856.346.1877;  Cell: 416.726.5624
Web: www.maspix.com   E-Mail: chuck@maspix.com

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

----- Original Message -----
From: "amaclean" <amaclean@CO.NORTH-SLOPE.AK.US>
To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 1:52 PM
Subject: Digital data storage


> Greetings,
>
> I have a question about what constitutes adequate storage for a digital
> archive.  We are creating a digital archive of several thousand
photographs
> that have been scanned and saved as TIFF files.  We are planning on
burning
> the files to CDs.  The question I have is, how many copies of the CDs do
we
> need?  My boss, who is concerned about the bottom line thinks that two
copies
> will be adequate- a master copy and a working copy.  I would also like to
> burn a third copy and send it off-site as a kind of disaster insurance (in
> case the building burns down).  Are there any commonly accepted guildlines
> for redundant backups of digital archives?  Are two copies adequate, or is
a
> third copy necessary?  Thanks,
>
> Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
> Archival Technician
> Tuzzy Consortium Library
> P.O. Box 749, Barrow, AK 99723
> (907) 852-1720 / 1729 fax
> amaclean@co.north-slope-ak.us
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
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>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>