National Archives buys petabyte of digital storage
Kable
Published: 12 Nov 2009 11:37 GMT
The government's official archives has extended its storage capacity with a digital tape library system.
The National Archives said the new one petabyte capacity — just over one million gigabytes — is equivalent to 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets. This will allow it to handle a "flood" of official digital records over the coming years.
The archive said it chose a tape system, rather than a disk version, as it was greener. It estimated that a comparable disk-based system would have used 25 times as much energy for spinning and cooling, even when they are not reading or writing data.
The new system will store both 'born-digital records', such as websites and digital documents, and digital copies of paper records.
David Thomas, director of technology at the National Archives, said: "This is a fantastic step forward for us as we work to ensure continued access to digital information in the future.
"The capacity of this machine is huge. But in this digital age we live in, we are producing vast amounts of information every day, and these types of machines will have a growing role in the archives of the future."
The National Archives' current collection holds some 11 million records, including paper and parchment records, electronic records and websites, photographs, posters and drawings, plus an estimated six million maps.
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