Wikipedia Beefs Up Multimedia Backend

According to Jon Brodkin of PCWorld, Wikipedia has recently invested in significant backend upgrades in order to accommodate upcoming increases in multimedia size restrictions. 

Up to present, users have been relatively limited in the size of any images, audio files, or video files hosted amongst Wikipedia pages.  With an upgraded backend comes more freedom for users to take Wikipedia to the next level in the world of reference superiority.

Wikimedia Foundation CTO Brion Vibber stated "For a long time, we just did not have the capacity [to handle very large media files]," in regards to the upgrade.  The truth is, the "Wikimedia" servers which host all Wikipedia based multimedia content initially had just 2 TB of storage available across all articles.  In early 2008, an upgrade to 24 TB was made, of which just 5TB has actually been used to date.  The new upgrade increases the available storage to a whopping 48 TB, leaving a lot of headroom for users in the coming months, and even years. 

The new servers and storage solutions have been supplied by Sun, which offered Wikimedia Sun Fire x4500 and x4150 servers with StorageTek arrays at special prices, and through donations.  Through the new servers and arrays, Vibber comments, "The limits will get bigger and bigger to where it will be relatively easy for someone who has a legitimate need to upload a two-hour video of good quality."

According to Vibber, other goals for the new year and those ahead include improving usability, ease of use in relation to editing articles and uploading multimedia content, and integration with media sites such as Flicker.