mentatDUKE
09-06-2008, 05:00 PM
I plan on offering a data archiving service targeting independent filmmakers. The users will put all of their data onto external hard drives, and mail them to us. We then archive everything to LTO tapes and mail everything back to the user. We plan on offering packages where the user can obtain as much redundancy as they require. They can have one set of backup tapes for their home, another set for off-site/office, and maybe a third set to give to a trusted associate for safe-keeping.
Today's fimmmaking generates gigabytes upon gigabytes of data. Now that an IT-centric workflow is the norm, it's quite easy to lose everything. Burning everything to DVD is inefficient, time consuming, and risky. Copying to hardrives is also a bit risky since moving parts are involved and the probability of failure is high. This method can also prove to be cost prohibitive.
We plan on archiving all types of data for our users. P2 data, RedCODE, Andromeda RAW takes, DV captures, and entire project assets and directories.
The user should be able to rebuild an entire project without re-capturing or re-ingesting. We'd essentially be taking a snapshot of their directory structure, including the source material and any other material generated in post such as sound, artwork, composites, etc.
What would the value of this service be to you- the community?
Here's a model:
1) The user ships their external hard drives to us via priority mail with insurance.
2) We back everything up to two sets of LTO tapes. One primary backup plus a mirror.
3) We send eveything back insured and in staggered seperate packages so as to minimize risk. For example: We send the hard drives back first. Once the user acknowledges reciept, we send them the tapes. That way, all the eggs aren't in one basket.
4) Due to the fact that many people are not in a position to reimage their data from tape after a loss, we'd include one free restoration with the service. The user would send a set of archived tapes to us along with blank external drives and we would rebuild the project for them and send it all back.
I expect shipping both ways shouldn't be too expensive, so we'd probably make the user responsible for shipping the drives to us, while we take care of shipping the drives and archive tapes back to them at no additional cost other than the initial base-cost.
What would you be willing to pay per 400GB of data to be archived?
Looking forward to hearing your responses.
Thanks.
Today's fimmmaking generates gigabytes upon gigabytes of data. Now that an IT-centric workflow is the norm, it's quite easy to lose everything. Burning everything to DVD is inefficient, time consuming, and risky. Copying to hardrives is also a bit risky since moving parts are involved and the probability of failure is high. This method can also prove to be cost prohibitive.
We plan on archiving all types of data for our users. P2 data, RedCODE, Andromeda RAW takes, DV captures, and entire project assets and directories.
The user should be able to rebuild an entire project without re-capturing or re-ingesting. We'd essentially be taking a snapshot of their directory structure, including the source material and any other material generated in post such as sound, artwork, composites, etc.
What would the value of this service be to you- the community?
Here's a model:
1) The user ships their external hard drives to us via priority mail with insurance.
2) We back everything up to two sets of LTO tapes. One primary backup plus a mirror.
3) We send eveything back insured and in staggered seperate packages so as to minimize risk. For example: We send the hard drives back first. Once the user acknowledges reciept, we send them the tapes. That way, all the eggs aren't in one basket.
4) Due to the fact that many people are not in a position to reimage their data from tape after a loss, we'd include one free restoration with the service. The user would send a set of archived tapes to us along with blank external drives and we would rebuild the project for them and send it all back.
I expect shipping both ways shouldn't be too expensive, so we'd probably make the user responsible for shipping the drives to us, while we take care of shipping the drives and archive tapes back to them at no additional cost other than the initial base-cost.
What would you be willing to pay per 400GB of data to be archived?
Looking forward to hearing your responses.
Thanks.