LibraryIT’s Information Architecture team continues to manage the SGI/StorHouse storage virtualization upgrade and Trusted Edge implementation, begun this week.
To oversimplify, storage virtualization is the introduction of a virtualization layer that sits in between network-connected data storage spaces. This allows for related files (digital objects, typically) to be stored in unrelated storage areas yet represented in one continuous resource- the end user who is looking for and retrieving files will never see that the whole system they are using lives in separate spots.
Our StorHouse storage currently houses approximately 600TB (terabytes), or about two thousand times the size of our Orbis database, of replicated data. Plans are to implement Trusted Edge, a policy-based/tiered storage component, that will allow us to move files to specific storage based on their use and type. For example archive type data will move off to our archive system, StorHouse, while use copies that should be available to the end user might be moved off to a faster storage area for faster access.