2007-05-15 11:07:50 -
LONDON, May 15 /PRNewswire/ --
- GlassHouse Technologies provides consultancy for 100 terabyte storage
project tendering process
GlassHouse Technologies, the industry's leading independent consulting
firm with proven experience transforming IT infrastructure, today announced
that it had been selected by The National Library of Scotland (NLS) to
provide consultancy in the design and implementation of a new storage
infrastructure as part of a project to build its digital library. The Digital
NLS initiative involves making the Library's collections available online by
digitising its archives, collecting born-digital publications
and preserving
this irreplaceable collection in perpetuity.
The National Library of Scotland, established in 1925, holds copies of
every publication published in the United Kingdom, from medieval tomes to the
Harry Potter series. GlassHouse is providing consultancy to NLS on the
storage issues related to the digitisation of its archives to improve public
access, support a large number of online visitors and make its entire
collection available across the Internet.
To enable this digital library transformation, a new storage
infrastructure is required to handle the thousands of traditional paper
publications stored within its archives, as well as the newer rich media data
now also collected. The project is estimated to generate approximately 100TB
(terabytes) of data, which also needs to be stored securely and accommodate
the new publications being added daily.
GlassHouse initially worked with NLS to develop a business case as part
of their bid to secure project funding from the Scottish Executive. Once
funding was secured, GlassHouse worked with the Library's curators and ICT
division to understand the requirements for the new storage solution. This
was then fed into a Reference Architecture, from which a vendor tender
document was generated. The goal was to define and procure, through a
thorough tender document process, the most effective solution for the
greatest possible storage capacity delivering the most cost-effective value.
David Dinham, ICT Manager, NLS said, "Storing the National Library of
Scotland's collections electronically will both protect the collections
against disaster and improve the public's access to rare and valuable
documents. Until now, public access to some ancient documents in a fragile
condition has been restricted in order to conserve them. By storing these
documents electronically, they will be easily accessible by many more people.
This project is an important stage in improving the Library's services to
meet the needs of the future. GlassHouse's support in securing funding and
defining the right set of capabilities we need has been invaluable and
brought our storage project in on time to budget with minimum risk and impact
to the Library's resources."
Peter Hurst, principal consultant for GlassHouse, said, "Libraries such
as NLS provide hugely valuable historic and current resources, not just to
Scotland but to any researchers and other interested parties. Our role is to
ensure the success of this project through careful identification of the
technology and services required, then to assist them in evaluating vendors
through the tender process."
GlassHouse was brought onto the project by the Library in 2006 and work
is expected to continue through 2009.
About GlassHouse Technologies:
GlassHouse Technologies is the industry's leading independent consulting
firm with proven experience transforming IT infrastructure. Transom(SM),
GlassHouse's proprietary methodology, aligns business processes and
information technology systems, transforming our client's existing
infrastructure into scalable, compliant, cost-efficient and tightly organized
environments. GlassHouse consultants architect, implement and operate IT
environments to drive high performance and agility. GlassHouse clients
include Allianz, Virgin Mobile, State Street Global Advisors, Morgan Stanley,
Biogen, Aetna and Wells Fargo.
More information about GlassHouse is available at www.glasshouse.com
Web site: www.glasshouse.com
Source: GlassHouse Technologies
