V&A exhibits huge thirst for storage

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), one of the most famous art and design museums in the world, has turned to Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) to migrate its digital asset library to help cope with growing storage demands.

HDS takes over the contract from a previous EMC installation which had reached the limits of its capacity and was unable to support further expansion.

The new deployment aims to tackle the growing needs of the museum's huge collection of digital images and other media.

In response to strong demand for online access to its exhibits from design and art lovers and students across the globe, the V&A has implemented a Digital Asset Management System in order to create and archive electronic images of its entire collection.

The museum holds a catalogue of very high resolution images and media such as 3D models, and expects to add other digital content such as recordings of west end shows and historical footage. The new system is designed to scale as the data requirements grow with the addition of new media.

This will give those unable to visit the museum access to the pieces on display, as well as giving everyone access to the wide range of items not on display at any given time.

Images of objects range from antique jewellery to the latest furniture designs, and demonstrate the richness and diversity of the V&A collections.

The V&A's main website currently attracts four million hits a month. As the website typically features multiple images of each item, the V&A expects eventually to hold more content digitally than it does physically.

"The V&A is a world-class museum famous for its eclectic exhibits and dedication to bringing design, art and popular culture to the public," said Steve Murphy, managing director of HDS.

"We are very proud to be associated with these efforts and look forward to seeing an increasing number of people worldwide benefit from online access to these incredible images."

The new system can scale up to 200TB of potential capacity and will last the museum at least seven years. The platform comprises two Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 1000 models, each currently equipped with 60TB.

As well as offering increased capacity, the new system has also consolidated the V&A's storage systems, thereby reducing energy consumption and management overheads as well.

One Hitachi system sits at the main site in Kensington while the other is located at a secondary site a few miles away with data replicated between the two to ensure full protection in the event of a disaster.

"Scalability was of paramount importance to us," explained Sarah Winmill, head of information systems services at the V&A.

"We have hundreds of thousands of images that we eventually want to put online. As we move further into the 21st century, we are seeing more digitally native works being created that the V&A may wish to acquire, so we need a safe place to keep and display them."