As the SMA becomes fully operational (with all 8 antennas and full set of the MIT/SAO correlator), the storage of the data becomes a major issue for the on-line data archive system described in the previous sections. We will inevitably need a high capacity mass storage system.
Fortunately, the technology for storing large volume data is rapidly advancing and numerous choices are available today. However hardware can be difficult to replace than software, thus we should choose the mass storage devices carefully. In this section, we discuss criteria for choosing the hardware and compare the devices that the current mass storage technology offers. At the end, recommendations are given to aid future decision making on the purchase of the hardware.