Milestone in the history of ArchivistaBoxes
Because of its distinctive shape and its history of ascents, it is one of the best known mountains in the world. The Matterhorn is a landmark in Switzerland, as well as being the most photographed tourist attraction (source: Wikipedia).
Pfaffhausen, 1 July, 2009: we brought the ArchivistaBox systems to market in 2005. At the time, the ArchivistaBox archive had space for up to 80 GB. That sounds rather small today, although 80 GB actually provides space for about 1.5 million pages. We said at the time, too, that we could certainly offer larger systems, but that we configure such systems individually. Some customers are indeed using larger archiving systems – a quad-core machine with 2 TB capacity is currently being used by one customer. Such systems are produced and supplied with a rack architecture and some have been running already for years at our customers' facilities.
Such systems were/are in the low five figure region. Hardware has been individually ordered, sorted and also maintained. Not that this causes extremely high costs, but it does cause higher costs than is possible with the standard ArchivistaBox systems.
Up to 6 TB capacity with an ArchivistaBox Matterhorn
With the ArchivistaBox Matterhorn, we can now also offer a solution with amazing features for the top end of the market. While the ArchivistaBox Matterhorn weighs a little over 5 kilograms, it also provides space for up to 6 TB of material. Yes, you have read this right: up to 6 TB of material fit in a single ArchivistaBox. Let's assume 1 million pages equate to 50 GB. A short maths exercise for you: how many pages fit in an ArchivistaBox Matterhorn? Did you calculate correctly? Up to 120 million pages fit in an ArchivistaBox Matterhorn.
But the ArchivistaBox Matterhorn also offers another feature that you are unlikely to find anywhere else. Despite having a fast quad-core processor and redundant hard drives (hardware RAID controller), the ArchivistaBox Matterhorn requires very little electricity. The ArchivistaBox Matterhorn was designed for energy efficiency right from the very beginning and needs between 80 and 120 Watts (full load). I think that it is legitimate in this respect to talk here about Green IT; after all, the current ArchivistaBoxes Eiger needs — when designed redundantly — approx. 80 to 100 Watts, even with 20x less hard drive capacity. And even our ArchivistaBox Eigers aren't exactly power guzzlers if you consider the fact that classic servers are accompanied by power supplies of 2×500 Watts or more.
Box-in-Box concept for the ArchivistaBox Matterhorn
What else is characteristic about an ArchivistaBox Matterhorn? The unlimited option to operate several ArchivistaBoxes (slave stations, in particular) directly on the same ArchivistaBox (box-in-box concept) is one example. And so that we understand each other: yes, there are cases where we strongly recommend redundantly designed ArchivistaBox Matterhorn systems, but there are also many cases where one ArchivistaBox Matterhorn is entirely sufficient because, as with every ArchivistaBox, you also acquire the maintenance services with the application, i.e., a defective box can and will be replaced quickly (within 1 business day).
Excellent price-performance ratio
You will no doubt also be interested in the price of an ArchivistaBox Matterhorn. For the basic configuration (2×2 TB space), the ArchivistaBox Matterhorn is not more expensive than the ArchivistaBox Eiger solution. In numbers: 4,000 Swiss Francs or 2,660 Euros for the hardware. By the way, nothing changes with regard to licensing either. You can use the entire drive capacity without limits for the same prices as before — this has also been the case until now with the ArchivistaBox Eiger systems. The ArchivistaBox Matterhorn will be available in the store within approx. 1 to 2 weeks. But it can be viewed already today, live in action, at our office. You'll find more information about how to arrange this here.
P.S: We think that we and you currently don't need any larger ArchivistaBox systems. From a technological point of view, however, we can ship and set up such systems at any time. We are always happy to help on webmaster@archivista.ch.
