Centralized Storage for the Rest of Us

Using Xsan has additional benefits, Castle adds. Because the storage is centralized, students need not sit at the same workstation each time. With three ROP video classes on the schedule and 90 filmmakers eager to work throughout the day, this type of flexibility is invaluable. In addition, Castle has been able to dedicate systems to specific tasks, such as what he terms the “screaming-fast” dual processor Power Mac G5 with 4GB of RAM that now serves as a motion graphics workstation.

With Xsan and Xserve RAID, our network is now so powerful that we can have all of the workstations editing directly from our centralized storage server at the same time.

— Jeff Castle

Castle considers Albany’s Apple tools to be the foundation he needs to grow the ROP program. “With Xsan we have access to technologies that are going to be cutting-edge for the next 10 years,” he says. “Our infrastructure is totally upgradeable. Before Xserve RAID and Xsan came along, the only other options cost more than $100,000. Apple has taken something that’s highly necessary — and until now astronomically expensive — they’ve reconfigured it, simplified it without making it any less powerful — and made it affordable for the rest of us.”

The Right Thing to Do

Although SANs are commonplace in the private sector, education has yet to embrace the architecture on a large scale. Castle believes schools should take a second look at this storage solution.

“The setup was probably more than many schools are willing to spend,” acknowledges Castle. “But the efficiency and collaboration afforded by the installation will justify its cost in a short amount of time. We not only reap the benefits of centralized storage and massive throughput, we get it all for a cost-per-megabyte figure that’s lower than what we’d have to spend on individual workstation hard disks.

“The thing we did differently and what makes this so exciting,” adds Castle, “was that we put infrastructure first. Most public high schools — especially those strapped for cash — aren’t willing to do that. Instead, they fill up rooms with computers that look good to the public. But in my opinion, putting in Xsan and all of the other Apple technologies was really the efficient, right thing to do.”