OT: Document Management storage, SANs and NAS

[IPAddis]

One for all you fellow IT people out there...

I am tendering to develop a document management system for storing insurance claims. I need to scan the incoming documents (paper documents posted) and then store them for later retrieval.

I need to know whether to store them in SQL Server as BLOB fields or store them as GIF/TIFF files on a disk and store a UNC path in the database.

I also need to store 10TB (approx 12000GB) of data over 5 years so I will probably need a large SAN or NAS storage array.

If anyone has any experience or ideas in this field, please let me know, either here (gives me an excuse to look at PH) or by email at [e-mail]

Sorry for the OT but web searches are fairly useless.

Ian A.

>>> Edited by IPAddis on Wednesday 3rd November 14:23

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Can't help you I'm afraid (no idea what you're talking abut) but thought I'd write and wish you good luck with your tender.

[ehasler]

We use EMC for our SAN setup.

Have a look at www.emc.com

[NikB]

Can't help with the software side, but have a look at www.bluearc.com for mass storage.

Hope this helps

Nik

>> Edited by NikB on Friday 22 November 10:25

[ehasler]

Just checked with one of our Unix SAs, and he's recommended the following suppliers of enterprise storage solutions:

IBM
HP
Sun
Hitachi Data Systems

Hope this helps,

Ed

>> Edited by ehasler on Friday 22 November 10:30

[plotloss]

Hi Ian,

Yep, we do exactly the same thing for exactly the same purpose.

I would advised against BLOB fields because the SQL DBMS has a difficult time internally coping with that much raw data.

The TIFF solution is far more elegant and for claims forms multi page TIFF's are easy. Of course storage maybe a little bigger but when you are dealing with that volume of data a few GB here and there really dont make any difference.

Added to which when considering viewing software a blob will need an inline data stream passed to it which it will then need to construct an image out of, whereas TIFF viewers are freely available or simple to create yourself out of the Wang OCX control.

HTH

Mattt.

[IPAddis]

Thanks for the help. I have heard EMC mentioned before but I will probably have to go to Compaq for the NAS solution as the company is in the public sector and must have Compaq or some similar cr*p.

Still a bit of a debate about whether to use BLOB storage inside the database or files on disk. Ideas?

Ta,

Ian A.

[IPAddis]

Ahh, my saviour! Thanks very much, I will get muchos brownie points for that. Might post a couple more questions once my brain has interpreted the implications of this.

Thanks again,

Ian A.

plotloss said: Hi Ian,

Yep, we do exactly the same thing for exactly the same purpose.

I would advised against BLOB fields because the SQL DBMS has a difficult time internally coping with that much raw data.

The TIFF solution is far more elegant and for claims forms multi page TIFF's are easy. Of course storage maybe a little bigger but when you are dealing with that volume of data a few GB here and there really dont make any difference.

Added to which when considering viewing software a blob will need an inline data stream passed to it which it will then need to construct an image out of, whereas TIFF viewers are freely available or simple to create yourself out of the Wang OCX control.

HTH

Mattt.

[agent006]

Try www.invu.net
not sure if it'll be big enough for what you want, but they might be able to write one for you.

[FunkyGibbon]

We've done the very same thing with Membership data. (Though the volume of data was much less, but we have SAN experience as well). I've asked the project manager for details, so if you email me through my profile I'll get some technical details for you.

D.

>> Edited by FunkyGibbon on Friday 22 November 11:29

[IPAddis]

Anyone got any experience with Content Addressed Storage (EMC do one)? Seems a fairly new technology. Betamax or serious concept?

Ta,

Ian A.

[icamm]

You could also look at

Auspex
Network Appliance

for NAS solutions

[plotloss]

So did you get the gig then Ian?

Matt.

[JonRB]

Hve you looked at Formscape? www.formscape.com

[Peritas]

Hi
Check out EMC Centera product range

Will do exaclty as you want - its a content management box

Or if you are still looking for a cheaper alternative
Look to Net Apps
They make the best NAS systems around and are "as cheap as chips"

Hope this helps

[Plotloss]

JonRB said: Hve you looked at Formscape? www.formscape.com

Jon,

Are you familiar with Formscape then? Never heard of anyone else before thats ever heard of that.

Matt.

[IPAddis]

Peritas said: Hi
Check out EMC Centera product range

Will do exaclty as you want - its a content management box

Or if you are still looking for a cheaper alternative
Look to Net Apps
They make the best NAS systems around and are "as cheap as chips"

Hope this helps

Haven't got the gig yet, it's public sector so an unbelievable amount of time and money is being spent on tendering, agenda meetings, discussing unachievable targets, best and final offer, etc.

The EMC Centera is the box in question. I can cope with the logistics of NAS (Compaq resellers Geni-Sys have recommended a solution) but I haven't got round the technical details of CAS yet. They say it is optimised for data which doesn't change but I haven't found any decent explanation how it works yet.

Google search for Content Adressable (or even Addressible in case of spelling errors) Storage gives few results. Anyone actually used it?

Ta for suggesstions BTW.

Ian A.