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GlassHouse TO CONSULT ON WA STATE DIGITAL ARCHIVES PROJECT

GlassHouse Technologies Inc, a leading provider of vendor-neutral storage services and consulting, announced recently that it has won a contract and is providing consulting services to the Washington State Digital Archives Project, the first state digital archives in the United States.

GlassHouse won the contract with Washington State after responding to a Request For Qualifications and Quotation solicitation. The scope of the consulting engagement 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. GlassHouse 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 GlassHouse's Storage Interoperability Lab Services.

"When we issued our RFQQ we specifically looked for organizations that would provide us with independent, vendor-neutral counsel and advice," said Cathy Turk, Financial Services Manager, Washington State. "We wanted to consider best practices and be very rigorous in defining our project goals and expectations. Of all the responses we received, GlassHouse's was far and away the best," Turk added.

"While many states in America are talking about digitally archiving their records, Washington State has taken the lead with a bold, visionary plan to make the state's vast legal and historical records -- everything from homesteading records to the history of state law and historical records about state lands, parks and natural resources -- available to citizens through a central digital repository," said Richard Scannell, GlassHouse vice president of Strategy. "We are pleased that Washington State chose us for this challenging project. The Office of the Secretary of State recognizes the value of our deep experience consulting on SANs, archiving and storage technologies, and we are privileged to be able to work with professionals who understand the value of their data," Scannell added.

About the Washington State Digital Archives

The Washington State Digital Archives project is an unprecedented 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, Archives and Records Management Division, the project has as its goal the transfer of the recorded history of the State into a single, widely-available digital repository.

Washington State broke ground on the building which will house the Digital Archives April 7, 2003. 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, Cheney, WA, is scheduled to open its doors in 2004. For more information, please contact Trova Hutchins, Communications Director, 360-902-4140 or thutchins@secstate.wa.gov.