• Own hardware
    • Server: roughly $5-8k baseline plus $100-200/TB*
      • Recommend purchase of second server to house backup
      • Backup server requires purchase of backup software (a few hundred/year)
      • Requires a moderate amount of labor from BIO IT office to setup and maintain
      • Can be housed in the data center in the CRC at no additional cost (and you will likely want to as servers can be extremely loud)
      • Can be used to host other services but doing so may cut down on performance and access speeds
    • High end desktop computer: $2-4k baseline plus storage drive costs*
      • Recommend use of direct attach storage device to house backup
      • No specialized backup software required
      • Requires light amount of labor from BIO IT to setup and maintain
      • Less storage and processing capacity than server but can be nearly as reliable
      • Can be used to host other services or perform other duties in the lab space but doing so may cut down on performance and access speeds
    • Direct attached storage device: $200-500 plus ~$25/TB*
      • Connects to lab PC via USB
      • Worse performance and reliability than server or cloud options
      • Much easier and cheaper to setup and maintain than server or cloud
    • Network attached storage
      • Not recommended in VT network environment
  • Cloud
    • Virginia Tech ARC
      • Up to ~25 TB per researcher of varied personal and collaborative storage options
      • Requires transferring data to and from Linux servers via command line or web interface. Unable to view most files directly unless you transfer them back to a normal computer.
    • Google Drive for personal and Shared Drives for collaboration
      • Unlimited storage currently
      • Likely reduced to 10 GB/Drive on July 1st, 2024
      • Possible that VT stops working with Google all together and we transition 100% to Microsoft environment
    • Microsoft OneDrive for personal and Sharepoint for collaboration
      • 10 TB per personal OneDrive
      • 1-2 TB per Sharepoint
      • Sharepoint not very user friendly and has no desktop app (need to use web browser to access)
    • Amazon Web Services (AWS)/Microsoft Azure/Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
      • Relatively unexplored option at this stage since Google Shared Drives and the occasional Direct Attached Storage device has met the needs of the department
      • Incurs monthly costs that are billed to the department and need to be reviewed monthly to ensure fund numbers are being accurately charged
      • Most of these run ~$20/TB/month with additional monthly charges based on use*
      • Most can be accessed easily via file browsers but require more complexity to connect into than a personal file server, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.

*all pricing is based on quotes generated in 2022. Please submit ticket to biohelp@vt.edu to request updated pricing.