Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#1

Post by websiteguy » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 11:32 PM UTC

Typical solutions for backup, log files, email servers, databases all seem to cost $5K to $8K a TB over a 3 year period, including "support". Anyone with production experience with large scale disk storage that breaks the $1K/TB price point (raid'd)?

Re: Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#2

Post by daniel-cussen » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 11:47 PM UTC

Tape is the cheapest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_tape_data_storage

Prices don't show here, but in general it's 15 times cheaper and 200 times less energy to use tape.

Re: Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#3

Post by rudiger » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 11:53 PM UTC

Roll your own JBOD setup?

Re: Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#4

Post by websiteguy » Fri, Jun 03, 2011, 1:54 AM UTC

Thanks for the replies -

Need disk storage, would like to use 7200rpm for real-time access to logs, 15k for database/email apps

Would be a lot of fun to roll our own, but we are resource constrained, and while money is not an issue for us, I don't like complicated/expensive solutions, I like simple/inexpensive

Looking at NetApp for example, but having a hard time accepting the price point.

Re: Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#5

Post by latch » Fri, Jun 03, 2011, 9:46 AM UTC

obligatory have you read about the backblaze pod design? comment:

http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-h...

Re: Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#6

Post by websiteguy » Fri, Jun 03, 2011, 11:53 AM UTC

@latch - Yes, we saw it - would be a fun project, but we are software hackers :-) There are also concerns about heat, vibration, hot swapping, etc. I would happily spend $78K for that same storage instead of $7.8K if it was reliable and was shipped as a complete package.

Closest company doing something like this is CORAID, which might be an option, but they have a number of proprietary interfaces/systems to buy in to.

Re: Ask HN: Inexpensive large scale (100's of TB) storage options?

#7

Post by staunch » Sat, Jun 04, 2011, 5:39 AM UTC

websiteguy wrote: post #6

@latch - Yes, we saw it - would be a fun project, but we are software hackers :-) There are also concerns about heat, vibration, hot swapping, etc. I would happily spend $78K for that same storage instead of $7.8K if it was reliable and was shipped as a complete package. Closest company doing something like this is CORAID, which might be an option, but they have a number of proprietary interfaces/systems to buy in to…

(You don't need to write @latch here. You can reply directly to a thread)