Anna,

How you can scale depends to a large extent on the degree of accessibility required. Arkivum is designed to be able to cope with very high volumes which are accessed relatively rarely. File sync and share services are OK for modest volumes widely shared then there's the likes of Tessella and Duracloud as well as in house provision, so I feel your pain!

Janet is ready to work with these suppliers and others where we see real demand and we have had some success in getting improved terms for the sector by being the vehicle through which the sector speaks with one voice.

I haven't seen much reliable detailed work on costs as yet though. From an infrastructure perspective there's also the problem that institutions often understate the costs of in house provision. Many researchers seem to believe that the fairies provide their power and premises for example!

John

Sent from my iPad

> On 2 Apr 2014, at 19:29, "Anna Clements" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Thanks, both - and I probably agree overall.
> 
> The biggest issue I face right now is trying to estimate costs - even for such things that should be straightforward such as the data storage infrastructure. I know there has been some work on this and also the 4C project is underway ... But does anyone have a costing model they would be willing to share particularly comparing local I house storage to 3rd party provision. (I am aware of the costing model for Arkivum)
> Particularly given that we are also dealing with considerable uncertainty on 1. How much data we have and growth rate 2. How much we expect to be able to store in external data centres and 3. How much we think will be open access and therefore easily accessible and shareable cf what we expect to be restricted / by request access - so scalability is a key factor.
> 
> Anna
> 
> 
> Anna Clements
> Head of Research Data and Information Services
> University of St Andrews
> St Andrews, Fife,KY16 9AL
> @annakclements
> 
>>> On 2 Apr 2014, at 18:56, "Kevin Ashley" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 02/04/14 18:21, Anna Clements wrote:
>>> Thanks, Rachel and for the summary - will read in detail but initial question is
>>> ...
>>> Is this report then evidence for the need for (inter)national & subject data
>>> centres to be developed where none exist .. and so maybe remove the need for
>>> institutions to do this themselves - duplicating costs and effort?
>> 
>> My opinion:
>> 
>> The answer is yes to the first part, and no to the second. Yes, it is evidence
>> that the existing data centres deliver value and hence can support the case for
>> more of them to exist. But even if funders take that up with enthusiasm, it will
>> take some years for it to happen and there will still be areas of research that
>> aren't covered. There will thus be a role for institutions for the foreseeable
>> future. These questions were examined in the UKRDS report back in 2010 and I
>> don't think the picture has changed substantially since then.
>> 
>> As John Milner said, the solutions may involve regional consortia and/or some
>> mix of commercial suppliers for some of the infrastructure, but intellectual
>> custody will still remain the responsibility of institutions themselves.
>> 
>> 

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