Need help on good Job Archiving method (current one is horrible)

[StykFacE]

I really need some help on some Job Archiving method, hopefully I can find a good solution from one of you guys here that already does this. I am frustrated up to my eyeballs with our current archiving method, which is laughable at best.

Hopefully those that can help won't get ran off by the lengthy post, but here's the current situation:

Each Project Manager has his own job folder. Then, it consist of a 5 digit job number, the Project Manager's initials, and the job name.

Example:
[Job#]-[PM's Initials]-[Job Name]

so it would look like this:
50684-TF-University of Dallas

Each P.M. has about 10-30 jobs that are active. Within each job folder there are usually about 5 folders: Submittals, CAD Drawings, Purchase Orders, etc.... You get the idea (hopefully).

Each month, jobs that are finished get moved into a "Closeouts" folder in each PM's directory on the network. That's where the frustration comes in. The current standard of archiving consists of me going to each PM's closeouts folder, copying everything in there to a temporary directory and then burning a CD/DVD and placing it in a three ring binder labeled for that month: but with no CAD files. All the CAD files get Bound in AutoCAD into one DWG file and thrown on the network archive server for future retrieval if needed under a pretty well thought out hierarchy system of folders.

The issue is this: EVERY SINGLE month people come to me to "put a job back into their active job folder" so they can access an old Purchase Order, Submittal, etc. You name it, it needs to be "accessed". One of the reasons we are doing things this way is to conserve space on the server. Its only like 30-40GB hard drive and we have about 7GB free. Yes I know we really need an upgrade but try telling my tightass owners that in a recession. Regardless, when I "reburn" the CD or just in the archiving process period, something usually gets messed up, and I'm to blame since I'm the one doing the backup.

I'm sick and tired of this ancient archiving system. There has got to be a better way out there to archive old job folders. Can anyone help me out with maybe the way your company does it?? I was thinking some type of NAS device with an offsite NAS unit that we can link together to mimic each unit. Regardless, we have got to do something where the job folders (and not JUST the Cad Files) are accessible after the job is completed.

Please, any ideas? I'm really a bit in desperate need here. Just remember, a brand spankin' new server is basically out of the question as of right now. If that's the only option then let me know and I'll do my best at presenting the option. Thanks in advance to all.

[StykFacE]

For the record, here is what I'm thinking are the best options:

Option one
Having a NAS device.

Option two
Upgrading to a new server

Option three
Putting a bigger SCSI hard drive in our current archiving server.

Now, out of these options, there needs to be an off-site backup of these jobs in case a catastrophe happens at our office (fire, severe weather, hardware failure, etc). Also, I'm wanting to stay away from the aged Tape Backup. Does anyone here use any type of NAS unit? I was thinking this could be our cheapest option. Then I was wondering if there was a way to have an off-site NAS device that is securely networked over the internet via VPN to the onsite NAS or Server and it can backup itself from any changes made on a nightly/weekly schedule. Is this an option?

[Spools]

You could look into ProductCenter from Softech. Our company has been using it for years. However,we've recently moved to PTC's Windchill product because of our reliance on Wildfire (ProEngineer).

I have no idea what kind of costs you'd be looking at but it's worth giving them a call.