The consulting includes a feasibility analysis of three key components of the Digital Archives project: storage area networks; converting from legacy software and data; and data archiving. Consultants are assessing the feasibility of a variety of storage, data conversion and archiving technologies for the project, as well as making recommendations, providing preliminary design parameters, documenting recommendations and best practices, and providing proof-of-concept testing via the company's storage interoperability lab services.
The Washington State Digital Archives project is an effort to capture and digitize state and local government electronic records, preserving a comprehensive record of the state's history.
Spearheaded by the Office of the Secretary of State
Ultimately, the digital archives will hold 800 terabytes of information, the equivalent of 200 billion pages of text. (200 billion pages of text would run the length of a football field and stack 270 feet high.) The new Digital Archives building, currently being constructed on the campus of Eastern Washington University, in Cheney, Wash., is scheduled to open in 2004.