Calculating Storage Space Requirements
... for digital asset management and online library systems
The amount of storage space you will need for managing digital assets depends mainly upon:
- - The number of files.
- - What size surrogates for 'viewing' images, videos or audio files you choose to use.
- - If master files are copied from another location - say a CD - or just a reference made to the master location.
- - Whether you wish to make large or 'master' size versions available for download.*
* For example, if your application for digital asset management software is for example an online photo and video library and you want authorised users to be able to download original files, then those files must be available to the system - they can't reside only on a CD or DVD. On the other hand, it might be that you want an internal system for brand asset management in which users can only search for and view lower resolution versions of images or perhaps a 10 second clip of a video or audio file, in which case it isn't necessary for the master files to be available to the system once they've been uploaded.
For cataloguer and web page viewing you will probably choose to have a thumbnail surrogate of perhaps 150 pixels on the longest side, a reference size to view alongside data of say 400 pixels on the longest side, and maybe a larger version of 1024 pixels on the longest side. You can see how these sizes look on the iBase demonstration picture library. The file sizes will be determined by the image itself and the amount of JPEG compression used, but as a guide a pack of three images - thumb, reference and larger - will probably total something like 250Kb - 500Kb.
Example - assuming the lower value of 250Kb for the pack of surrogate images above:
- - 1,000 records will need 1,000 x 250Kb = 250Mb of surrogate storage space.
- - 10,000 records will need 10,000 x 250Kb = 2,500Mb (2.5Gb) of surrogate storage space.
- - 100,000 records will need 100,000 x 250Kb = 25,000Mb (25Gb) of surrogate storage space.
If 'master' sized versions are needed, either for cataloguers or for web / intranet users to download, then iBase systems do not alter the masters in any way, but copy them to wherever they are required. So a 50Mb TIFF or a 200Mb WMV master file will require the corresponding amount of storage space.
Example - assuming 50Mb TIFF master files:
- - 1,000 records will need 1,000 x 50Mb = 50,000Mb (50Gb) of master file storage space.
- - 10,000 records will need 10,000 x 50Mb = 500,000Mb (500Gb) of master file storage space.
- - 100,000 records will need 100,000 x 250Kb = 5,000Gb (5Tb) of master file storage space.
Note: 1,000 Megabytes (Mb) = 1 Gigabyte (Gb) and 1,000 Gigbytes = 1 Terabyte (Tb).
For further information about iBase products please contact us at sales@ibase.com or call +44 (0) 1943 603636