<div dir="auto"><div>For digital storage, an on-site, and a cloud solution are best for redundancy, if that's something you can afford. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">For hardware, a NAS RAID system is the current industry standard. It has multiple drives that hook up to an array and each drive holds redundant backups of the other drives, so if one goes down, the others can restore the information. The nice part about it too is that the data is held on multiple drives, so you would only need to replace one if there's a problem, rather than replacing the whole system. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">For the amount of data you're talking about, it will probably cost a few hundred dollars for the array and all the drives. Keeping in mind the more redundancy you want between drives, the more overall data you will need.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">For cloud systems, I would recommend going with one of the larger companies, as they tend to have the most security, and little chance that they're going to go under or lose your data. I think Google offers what you're looking for for about $35 a month. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">It's something I've been doing a lot of research on lately, so feel free to reach out to me directly if wanted any more information </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div>Melissa Ratcliff</div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:12.8px"><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">BC Society for the Museum of Original Costume (SMOC)</b><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px"><font size="2"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></span></p><div><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="verdana, sans-serif">1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6H 1V1
</font></span></p><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:72pt">604-216-7662</span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:108pt"><a href="http://www.smoc.ca/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.smoc.ca</a></span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:108pt">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SMOCostume/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">@smocostume</a></span><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="text-indent:144px">Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/smocostume/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">@smocostume</a></span><br></font></div></div></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 12:17 PM Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv <<a href="mailto:listserv@lists.museum.bc.ca">listserv@lists.museum.bc.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div lang="EN-CA" link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style="word-wrap:break-word">
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hello Museum Community,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our little museum is looking for data storage solutions that can house about 5 terabytes off-site. We currently rely on two NAS systems, one on site and another in a neighbouring town, which have served us well for nearly a decade. Unfortunately,
our IT company has relocated and can no longer provide space for the off-site unit, and our NAS systems are aging and may soon need upgrading.
<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We’re also exploring cloud storage options, but the quotes we’ve received from the usual providers are higher than we would like for our budget. Our IT support is investigating other options, but I wanted to reach out to our museum and
heritage community to ask:<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Has your organization found affordable, reliable solutions for off-site storage of large digital archives?<br>
Are there platforms, services, or approaches (hybrid storage, academic or nonprofit discounts, etc.) that you’ve had good experiences with?<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Any suggestions, tips, or lessons learned would be <i>very</i> welcome as we work to ensure our digital archives are secure, accessible, and sustainable for the long term. We know we will need to invest in either a new NAS or cloud storage,
we are just trying to find the best fit.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you in advance and happy holidays to all of you.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Warmly,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Charmaine Carpenter<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Executive Director / Curator<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">O: 604 894-5504<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">M: 778 859-7903<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:8.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><img width="93" height="59" style="width:.9687in;height:.6145in" id="m_-9044383558138823874Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image001.jpg@01DC7054.49CB5B60">
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#4472c4">I respectfully acknowledge I am speaking from and working on the
</span></i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#4472c4"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#4472c4">traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Lil’wat Nation.
</span></i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#4472c4"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#4472c4">Kukwstumckacw, merci, and thank you.
</span></i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#4472c4"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">Check out our new
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjX3W6KGwkE&t=11s" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><span style="color:#0563c1">VIDEO</span></a><span style="color:#4472c4"><u></u><u></u></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
</div>
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</blockquote></div>