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by frankchurch

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We are consuming more disk space than originally anticipated for the Document Imaging. We had originally projected that we were going to run out of disk space by mid year; however, this is not the case.

My question is which alternatives would suit us?

a)Compaq External Disk Sub-Array Module with 216MB and seven 316GB drives. $5,352
b)Snap Appliance SAN Server 4400 540GB RAID5 $5,944.99
c)Compaq New Server, $15,000

The first option deals with purchasing an external drive array module that we could attach to our existing server. The option is pricing considering that it would only provide 316GB of storage.

The second solution deals with acquiring a NAS (Network Area Storage) server device with 540GB of storage. By far this is the most cost effective solution. A NAS server is a stand alone disk array able to attach to our Microsoft Network and integrates with our security scheme.

The third and final alternative deals with purchasing a new server with larger storage capacity. This by far is the most expensive solution.

We will need two sets, so double the cost any of the above solutions.

Thank you,

3 replies

by dcosgrove

One other direction you can look into is archival and removal of older images. Perhaps some of the images can be moved to an optical disk at some point. Otherwise the two NAS options would increase storage and provide full time access as well as provide data security. Eventually, these will also fill up.

by dukebytes

Depends on how much space is needed. But, the ML530 has 2 media bays that can be used for hard drives and 12 normal slots for drives. You can get 2 18's for the system partation and 12 - 146GB drives for 1.6 TB of storage. Not sure if you need this much space or not... But the cost is about $22,000.00 for the box with a Gig of RAM and a single proc.

The external arrays are OK - but the snap server would be eaiser and quicker to setup and use. And they are cheap. But if you need more space - keep it in the box if you can - the external arrays just seem to be a pain in the @$$ and can be problems because of the cables etc...

Good luck,
Duke

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