Bulk disk space is available at $400 per gigabyte per year with a
minimum of a half gigabyte (500 MB) for one year (i.e. $200). Because
this fee is so close to our actual cost, it is non-refundable. This
is more expensive than retail prices for disks; however, as with all
CUNIX disk space, features include:
snapshots: Snapshots let you access recent backup copies of
your data as easily as your regular files. We generally keep several
days of snapshots around, and 10 or more "hourly" snapshots taken
throughout the day.
redundancy: Bulk disk space is stored on Network Appliance
file servers. These servers are fully RAID protected and extremely
stable. Failed disks are automatically replaced with spares with no
downtime and no loss of data.
backups: Long term backups are written to tape nightly and
sent weekly to a secure off-site location. If necessary, files can be
restored from as long as 2-3 months in the past. (There is a fee for
restorals.)
speed: NFS service from the Network Appliances is much
faster than NFS from Suns, and faster than many configurations of
local disk.
accessibility: Bulk disk space on our file servers can
easily be made accessible on all AcIS unix servers, or any chosen
subset of AcIS hosts.
staff: The NetApps are in a 24x7 manned machine room, are
watched over by automated monitoring software, and are repaired as
needed by on-call AcIS staff.
