Forgot to add something relevant to other commenter's claim about needing to be "big" or whatever. I was one of last holdouts of 1 logical function = 1 physical hardware as I liked to customize software for function (esp security TCB). On a related note, having lots of redundant systems for protecting files takes all kinds of servers and is expensive, right? Especially with all that hashing and crypto?
Stumbled onto them looking for accelerated crypto & cheaper x86 boxes. So, 6x Artigo at $300 (back then), 3x UPS at $50 each, 2x network switch's at $50, and 12x cables at $5 each = a very high availability solution for 100GB+ data for $2,110 plus tax. Breaking 1TB just took an extra grand or so. At that time, getting a similar level of storage with only two-way redundancy from "bargain" server vendors was more like $10,000-20,000.
Just gotta invest wisely and your problem turns from "cost too much" to "wow I'm sinking a lot of time into this project." The latter is more fun, at least. :)
They're called VIA Artigo's:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=via+artigo&_sacat=&_ex_k...
Stumbled onto them looking for accelerated crypto & cheaper x86 boxes. So, 6x Artigo at $300 (back then), 3x UPS at $50 each, 2x network switch's at $50, and 12x cables at $5 each = a very high availability solution for 100GB+ data for $2,110 plus tax. Breaking 1TB just took an extra grand or so. At that time, getting a similar level of storage with only two-way redundancy from "bargain" server vendors was more like $10,000-20,000.
Just gotta invest wisely and your problem turns from "cost too much" to "wow I'm sinking a lot of time into this project." The latter is more fun, at least. :)