DiscoverIT Datavault Storage Pricing for Morgridge

Storage Acquisition Models

Initially, DiscoverIT provided Datavault storage to Principal Investigators (PIs) who contributed servers to the CephFS cluster. We now offer two primary options for acquiring storage for your data: the buy-in model and the ad-hoc model.

1. Buy-in Model

In the buy-in model, labs can purchase storage servers to add directly to our CephFS storage pool. DiscoverIT helps to get quotes for the servers and make sure they're compatible with our environment, and once purchased a server provides the lab with about 100TB of space for 5 years, at which point the server will typically need to be retired.

DiscoverIT doesn't charge anything in this model, as the lab provides the money for the hardware and we provide the support and maintenance at no cost. This model is particularly useful for labs seeking to purchase storage using grant funding, because large purchases are often more efficient to process through grant funds. A similar large purchase through chargeback would typically incur significant overhead in terms of indirect costs.

2. Ad-hoc Model

In the ad-hoc model, labs request the specific storage allocations they need, when they need them, without purchasing a server beforehand. DiscoverIT monitors the capacity and usage of the data pool and buys more storage for it as needed.

Once a year, DiscoverIT runs a report to calculate how much money needs to be charged back to the lab based on their allocation. This model is useful for labs that intend to use less than 100TB of storage, or aren't certain yet of what their data usage is going to be and want flexibility.

Ad-hoc Pricing Structure

• Base Rate: $20/TB/year for storage allocations that do not require backups.
• Backup-Required Rate: $40/TB/year for Datavault projects that require backups (the base rate is doubled).

Hybrid Model & Chargeback Example

In practice, many labs utilize a combination of both models to optimize their storage costs and flexibility.

Consider a lab that has:

• Bought in: 100TB credit for primary Datavault storage and 100TB credit for backup Datavault storage.
• Requested: A total of 120TB of primary storage. Of this, 100TB requires backups, and 20TB does not require backups.

The buy-in credits are applied to their respective storage types.

1. For Production Storage:
   • Total primary storage requested: 120TB
   • Primary storage buy-in applied: 100TB
   • Remaining primary storage not covered by buy-in: 20TB
   • This remaining 20TB does not require backups, so it is charged at 20TB x $20/TB/year = $400
2. For Backup Storage:
   • Backup storage requested (for the 100TB of primary data requiring backup): 100TB
   • Backup storage buy-in applied: 100TB
   • Remaining backup storage not covered by buy-in: 0TB
   • Ad-hoc charge for this: 0TB

The total chargeback for this lab would be $400.

Reporting and Chargeback Schedule

• DiscoverIT can run ad-hoc usage reports at any time upon request.
• A proactive report will be provided to labs in March, allowing them to anticipate storage costs for the upcoming fiscal year planning.
• The actual chargeback will happen in July.