Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Maryland Automatic Disk Archiver). In the end, we chose to use Bacula
primarily because it was the package with which our support was most
familiar. Tools such as Bacula illustrate a common factor when considering
FLOSS against commercial solutions, namely the level of GUI usability.
However, in this case this was not such a factor as the console-based
command-line controller offers a rich set of functionality. Although the
learning curve is clearly steeper, this option means that administrators
have no choice but to develop a better understanding of the tools
capabilities as well as providing much fi ner control of the processes
involved. Finally, the data format used by NetVault is proprietary and
requires the NetVault software to access any previous archives. In
contrast with this, Bacula provides a suite of tools that allow access to
any archives without the requirement that Bacula is installed.
10.6 Keeping up-to-date
Taking this modular approach has helped signifi cantly in managing the
setup, as well as making the system much more robust and resistant to
failure. Although the result is a more stable hardware platform, it has still
been important to stay up-to-date with new technologies. For example,
there is a great deal written about cloud computing and its impact on
anything and everything (see Chapter 22 by Thornber, for example).
Indeed, at a recent conference on 'end-to-end' infrastructure, most
suppliers were offering products using virtualisation and cloud
capabilities. This is something often discussed internally and something
we feel does not offer any benefi ts signifi cant enough to make it worth
implementing at OGT at the moment. Of course, as this technology
matures its capabilities will only increase and it will almost certainly have
a future role to play at OGT. However, given the amount of data processed
on a daily basis, the use of the cloud as a data repository is neither
practical nor cost-effective at the moment. Where it may play a role for
OGT is in providing a platform as a service; for example, if there was a
short-term requirement for additional processing power that could not
be met by our current systems. The ability of the cloud to provide such
additional resources quickly and easily could prove very useful.
On a simpler level, there are alternatives to the DAS disk arrays
currently in use. One of these is a network attached storage (NAS) device,
as shown in Figure 10.3. As described previously, DAS disk arrays are
used to provide the necessary data storage facility within OGT. However,
some aspects of the system are being updated to include NAS devices as
Search WWH ::
Custom Search