I’m writing with some welcome news about support for the Library’s storage and servers. For some time Library IT has wrestled to find the best way to support the Library’s servers, and its rapid use of file storage as we become an increasingly digital library. The quick news is that the Library will replace its storage, server, and file backup infrastructure in the next several months. Library IT, specifically Jason Strutz and the Infrastructure Management and Support (IMS) group, will be communicating with you about the specific activities of this replacement. Normally this would be a “back office” operation, but it is significant for two reasons. If you’re interested, read on–there is reason for the Library to celebrate, and for the campus to celebrate with us.
The new storage acquisition is significant because it represents a landmark step for the the Library and the campus toward more centralized support for data storage. Why is this significant? Because data storage has become like the network–it’s essential to support virtually all the work that goes on in any organization. Library IT supports nearly 300 Terabytes of storage–the Library is one of the top ten storage users on campus, and that includes large colleges like LAS, and research centers like the Beckman Institute and the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB). With the exciting digitization of books for the Internet Archive, the Google Book digitization project, special collections, archives, film, still images, and audio, the Library’s storage needs are growing at an unprecedented rate. For some time we’ve kept pace with this growth, but storage, networking, and servers are becoming increasingly complex, requiring more staff to support and manage these systems.
At the same time the Library was working on its storage challenge, the campus IT community started two initiatives in which Library IT pro’s and faculty got involved–the Data Center Consolidation committee, and the Data Storage Task Force. Briefly stated, the campus IT community is focused on providing robust and reliable storage. In some cases, that means centralizing storage operations and services. The Library, the Data Center Consolidation committee, and CITES have come to a tentative agreement to move the Library’s primary storage and server equipment into the CITES data center in the DCL building. Some storage and server equipment will remain in the Library, and Library IT professionals will continue to manage and administer the servers and the storage for the Library.
What are the benefits of making this change? In a nutshell, the Library’s production servers and storage will be housed in a robust data center with more reliable power, cooling, and network connections than the Main Library can now provide. We will move into a facility that is dedicated to keeping servers and storage running 24/7. And, we’ll have made a giant step forward in the campus goal of centralizing storage so that all of us in the Library can concentrate on managing the technology, the systems, and the services that we provide best, using this infrastructure.
A number of people have helped us to get to this point, including Paul Hixson, Panit Lisy, Charley Kline, and Bob Booth at CITES and the Office of the CIO; further,the Operations and the Executive committees for Data Center Consolidation have helped to make possible our transition into the CITES data center. Many in Library IT have invested significant time and energy into getting to this point and further, including Jason Strutz, Tim Vruwink, Chuck Kibler, Lee Galaway, Bill Mischo, Tom Habing, and Robert Ferrer. We work with an important group of stakeholders in the Library as well, to determine and support storage needs, including Digital Content Creation, Preservation, Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Please stay tuned for more specific updates!