Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bionet!kristoff From: kristoff@genbank.BIO.NET (David Kristofferson) Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.genbank Subject: Re: Data banks and CD-ROM. Message-ID: Date: 28 Dec 89 19:09:32 GMT References: <8912192350.AA01990@net.bio.net> <2693@aecom.yu.edu> Organization: GenBank Online Service Lines: 48 > I agree that CD-ROM is a reasonable distribution medium for the data > banks, but you seem to imply that it will be cheaper for individuals > than a centralized storage and access point because everyone can get > hold of a 386 and buy a CD player for $1000. That's simply not true > if you scale it. > > Suppose there are 30 labs within your institution that need this > capability. There's $30,000 just for the players. Then you need 30 > subscriptions to each data bank, etc.; you know what I'm talking > about. > > Compare that to one subscription stored on a central network server > which can provide virtual disk access. Speed will be comparable or > better than CD-ROM directly, because the data can be stored > inexpensively (once) on fast hard disks attached to the server. > > I also feel that a remote search submission facility does have merit > in this situation. Let's face it -- a 386 is only so fast, and > submitting a job to a search engine could be the way to go. In a > network access scheme, this will cut down on network traffic > significantly. For those groups that can afford to set up and maintain their own system, you are definitely correct. Don't forget that this includes personnel costs as well as hardware and software. I should point out that a central service from GenBank is available to anyone with just a terminal/PC and a modem over the Telenet public data network. We provide *daily* updates to the nucleic acid sequence databases, a high-speed (80 MIPS soon) computer, and lots of fast hard disk space. More importantly we have a reliable, tested staff of high quality systems programmers and support people that do not have to be duplicated at each site. When one starts looking at the economics angle, this definitely makes sense over setting up many local servers. The drawback is that 1200 or 2400 baud modem connections are not as responsive as in-house systems, but Telenet is starting to offer 9600 baud service in some locations, the speed of the Internet is improving (we have a 1.54 Mbps connection), and I am sure that additional speed improvements will continue in this area. Unlike the old BIONET service, the new GenBank On-line Service has **plenty** of computing power, so the Telenet connection speed remains as our last weak link. -- Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank On-line Service Manager kristoff@genbank.bio.net