Wednesday, September 2, 2009

4U 67TB Server

BackBlaze is an online backup service company that, not unlike Google, builds their own data centers. Their recent breakthrough: a 4U storage 67TB RAID6 server that they designed themselves and graciously posted online. 67TB in just 4U isn't easy because most readily available 4U storage boxes house 16 drives, with very few accommodating 32. This one houses 45, along with a motherboard and two power supplies. With 2TB 7200rpm drives now shipping, a 90TB version can't be too far away.



The server's two power supplies aren't redundant; if one fails, the system is down until it is replaced - however this is version one. The interface is standard vanilla Gigabit Ethernet - which works well for BackBlaze because that's all they need. For uncompressed HD or 4K, you would still need something faster, like 4Gbit Fiber or 12Gbit Mini-SAS. Still, this design is good news for video editors: BackBlaze shows that it is possible to build huge storage boxes on a budget, and maybe one of these days, there will be an affordable online backup service geared toward large media files.

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