Web hosting of multimedia files

[Roy Tennant]

Forwarded by request, please reply to <Jim.Pakala at covenantseminary.edu> 
or if you reply to the list, please be sure to copy him. Thanks,
Roy

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Pakala, Jim" <Jim.Pakala at covenantseminary.edu>
> Date: June 28, 2004 2:32:16 PM PDT
>
> Colleagues:  If you or an IT person you know can respond to these 
> questions, I'd be much obliged.
>         Covenant has 250 GB of storage, but multimedia projects will 
> increase demand to over 1 TB in about a year. We're looking for 
> insights from those who have been in a similar position. We're 
> thinking of one server for general files, with a second one for 
> hosting multimedia. We envision a database where all the multimedia 
> can be stored, cataloged, and maintained by the actual multimedia 
> users. As a result of the growth, our current backup method of DLT's 
> won't do.
>
>         Do you have responses to these questions?:
>  1a)  Are you dealing with multimedia storage differently than 
> traditional file storage? 
> 1b)  If so, how has that gone? 
> 1c)  What do you use to manage it (e.g., Extensis)? 
>
>  2)  Are the users proactive in their management?
>
> 3a)  Have you worked with "Distributed File System" in Active 
> Directory? 
> 3b)  What benefits of DFS are you satisfied with and what was less 
> than expected?
>  3c)  Have you used the "volume shadow copy" feature? (It looks great.)
>
> 4a)  What kind of hardware are you using for storage (local, NAS, SAN, 
> iSCSI, firewire, etc.)? 
>  4b)  How does your backup hardware mix into that?
>  4c)  What backup hardware are you using to backup all your servers 
> (backup media, communication media, etc.)? 
> 4d)  Are you running separate backups on your application and storage 
> servers?
>
> 5)  Any other insights you have as we look at changing our storage and 
> backup solution?
>
> Jim
>  James C. Pakala     <mailto:jpakala at covenantseminary.edu>
>  Library Director    Phone: 314-434-4044 x140; Fax 314-434-4819
>  Covenant Theological Seminary
>  12330 Conway Road; St. Louis, MO 63141-8697
>
>