Tape does dominate in these large (big-data) environments because the scale of the data cannot be economically maintained on disk-based storage. Data tape is also easy/cheap to expand, physically transport and has much higher resiliency than disk based arrays. It can also be argued that it lasts much longer than disk technology as well. There are a lot of studies on this which are available on the web but ultimately disk environments are typically 10-23x more expensive (TCO - power, expansion, cooling, etc.) than those involving tape. Protecting your stored data with tape involves simply making two copies and shipping one of the data tapes (preferably in AXF format!) to another site. No power, cooling, etc. required. Even at the lower end, the only way to truly protect your data on disk is to have two physically separate storage environments running all the time which is expensive to implement and manage. Then with upgrades, they always involve a BIG swap of equipment. Expansion also involves more gear, cooling, power, connectivity, etc. All of our environments are combination of disk and tape in a 1:10 (very roughly) relationship. Disk for immediacy of access, staging on the way to the data tape library, site-to-site replication, etc. However, even at the lower end there are many compelling data tape robotic solutions available for less than $20k offering the reliability and advantages of larger scale solutions.
About the Webinar
Audio-visual resources in digital formats present even more challenges to preservation than do digital text resources. Reformatting information to a common file format can be difficult and may require specialists to ensure it is done with no loss in integrity. While digital text may still be usable if done imperfectly (e.g. skewed but still readable pages), even small errors in digital A/V files could render the material unusable.
This webinar will share the experiences of several projects that are working to ensure that A/V files can be preserved with their full integrity ensured.
Click here to view the agenda for Part One.
Event Sessions
Introduction
Speaker
Planning for Video Preservation Services at Harvard
Speakers
Nearly all of the major Harvard Library repositories count video (both analog and digital) among their valued holdings, though in many cases these materials are hidden from the scholarly community due to lack of resources for cataloging and processing. At the same time, these resources are at high risk of being lost because of format obsolescence, disappearing reproduction technologies, degrading physical media, and data corruption and loss. For media collections, there is only a small window of time globally in which to address preservation. Without a preservation intervention plan implemented in the next fifteen years, many of Harvard’s video resources will disappear.
This presentation will focus on the planning efforts and decisions that have been made in the early stages of establishing video reformatting and preservation services at the university. It will cover format, metadata and tool analysis, as well as an investigation of the potential impacts on the current digitization, reformatting, ingest and storage infrastructure.
AXF: Finally a Storage and Preservation Standard for the Ages
Speaker
Rather than rely on archaic or proprietary approaches, recent domain-specific advancements in the area of open standards based, long-term data storage have been made helping ensure long-term preservation and universal accessibility for valuable file-based assets and collections.
This presentation will give a detailed technical overview of the recently published SMPTE Archive eXchange Format (AXF) standard. Born out of the Big Data-centric pedigree of the Media and Entertainment industry, AXF is applicable to all aspects of file-based asset preservation now and into the future. In sharp contrast to other approaches such as TAR and LTFS, AXF was designed from the ground up with the goals of asset transport as well as long-term storage and preservation. AXF future-proofs digital content repositories by embracing key OAIS preservation philosophies and abstracting the underlying operating system, file system and storage technology so that content remains available no matter how each evolves.
A history of the development of AXF highlighting its recent standardization will be given along with a detailed overview of the technology and its key features as contrasted with other non-standard approaches such as LTFS. End-user success stories will focus attention on the key features of the AXF standard and how it can be leveraged to ensure open access, long-term protection, and transportability of file-based asset and collections now and into the future.
The AXF Standard can be downloaded from the SMPTE store. It does cost a couple of hundred dollars (SMPTE imposed fee for maintenance of the site, etc.) unless you have access to the SMPTE standards packages. There is no fee for development, usage, etc. as this is just a simple admin fee for the maintenance of the document. In terms of the customers currently using AXF, they include Disney Studios, Paramount, Labatoire Eclair, Danish and Dutch National Archives, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Major League Baseball and many others.
An Open-Source Preservation Solution: Hydra/Blacklight
Speaker
Additional Information
- Registration closes at 12:00 p.m. (ET) on December 17, 2014. Cancellations made by December 10, 2013 will receive a refund, less a $25 cancellation. After that date, there are no refunds.
- Registrants will receive detailed instructions about accessing the webinar via e-mail the Monday prior to the event. (Anyone registering between Monday and the close of registration will receive the message shortly after the registration is received, within normal business hours.) Due to the widespread use of spam blockers, filters, out of office messages, etc., it is your responsibility to contact the NISO office if you do not receive login instructions.
- If you have not received your Login Instruction email by 10:00 a.m. (ET) on the Tuesday before the webinar, at please contact the NISO office or email Juliana Wood, Educational Programs Manager at jwood@niso.org for immediate assistance.
- Registration is per site (access for one computer) and includes access to the online recorded archive of the webinar. You may have as many people as you like from the registrant's organization view the webinar from that one connection. If you need additional connections, you will need to enter a separate registration for each connection needed.
- If you are registering someone else from your organization, either use that person's e-mail address when registering or contact the NISO office to provide alternate contact information.
- Library Standards Alliance (LSA) members receive one free webinar connection as part of their membership and DO NOT need to register for the event for this free connection. Your webinar contact will receive the login instructions the Monday before the event. You may have as many people as you like from the member's library view the webinar from that one connection. If you need additional connections beyond the free one, then you will need to enter a paid registration (at the member rate) for each additional connection required.
- Webinar presentation slides and Q&A will be posted to the site following the live webinar.
- Registrants and LSA member webinar contacts will receive an e-mail message containing access information to the archived webinar recording within 48 hours after the event. This recording access is only to be used by the registrant's or member's organization.