By Dr. Marc M. Batschkus
1. Growth of Storage-as-a-Service (StaaS) Offerings
On-premises StaaS solutions involve storage systems being installed and maintained at the customer’s location by StaaS providers. Capacity expansion, data backup, and disaster recovery (DR) can be managed easily by the provider, eliminating the need for the customer to have in-house expertise or resources.
In addition to full-service options, there is the alternative to receive storage on a monthly subscription without service, allowing customers to manage it themselves.
Advantages of On-Prem StaaS:
- Often more cost-effective than public cloud services.
- Predictable monthly costs.
- Physical data storage remains on-site.
- Easier compliance fulfillment.
- Security parameters are fully controllable.
- Enables distribution across multiple self-managed sites.
- Reduced latency for applications like high-performance computing.
Public Cloud StaaS solutions, offered by traditional cloud providers, also have their benefits:
- Unlimited on-demand scalability.
- Immediate capacity expansion.
- Flexible storage performance adjustments.
Archiware P5 Backup and P5 Archive can handle backup and archiving for such setups.
2. Faster Storage Technologies
Technologies like PCIe 7.0 and NVMe 2.1 are set to increase throughput significantly in the near future.
3. High-Resolution Cameras, Production, and Media Formats
Cameras with resolutions exceeding 100 megapixels (up to 400 megapixels) are becoming common, resulting in larger file sizes. Similarly, video cameras now often support 8K resolution or higher. These trends increase storage requirements and backup sizes.
Solution: Implement an ingest archive early in the workflow to store RAW or master files on LTO tape. Use proxies for subsequent work and retrieve RAW files from the archive only when necessary.
4. Growth in Decentralized Production
Teams increasingly collaborate across geographical locations, particularly in media production. This drives demand for cloud solutions and specialized cloud storage like LucidLink, which supports distributed workflows.
Archiware P5 Backup can secure production data from LucidLink to disk or LTO.
5. Increased Use of NAS Storage
NAS (Network Attached Storage) has established itself as a flexible and cost-effective solution for local storage, ranging from small-scale to high-performance setups. Systems from providers like QNAP, Synology, FreeNAS/TrueNAS are widely used and compatible with Archiware P5 Backup and P5 Archive.
6. Larger Backups Due to Increased Storage Capacity
As file sizes grow, backup requirements also increase. Systematic archiving of completed projects can limit the size and duration of backups. This can be limited by systematically archiving (=migrating) completed projects (see next point).
7. More Regular Archiving
Archiving involves migrating files from production storage (e.g., NAS or SAN) to long-term archival storage.
Advantages of Archiving:
- Acts as the company’s “file memory.”
- Simplifies and speeds up file referencing and reuse.
- Reduces backup size and duration by migrating completed projects.
- Avoids unnecessary expansion of production storage.
- LTO-based archives pay off over time through savings in storage and energy costs.
8. More Metadata Through AI Processes
AI services like object recognition, facial recognition, and speech-to-text increasingly generate metadata, simplifying media file searches. Incorporating these metadata into archives enhances reuse and identification of media assets.
9. Archive Migrations Due to Changing Requirements
Originally, an archive was fixed to one storage technology. Migration only took place between updated storage generations (e.g. LTO-3 to LTO-5). Today, changing security requirements, dynamic price developments and numerous other factors mean that the archive should also be able to migrate to other storage technologies. It may also be the case that, in addition to the technology used, a further technology needs to come into play in order to create redundancy.
Tools like Archiware P5 Data Mover enable flexible migration and replication of archives, ensuring future-proof adaptability.
10. Increased Use of LTO Tape
LTO tape continues to gain importance due to its unique advantages:
- Best price-to-capacity ratio.
- Long lifespan.
- Enhanced cybersecurity through an “air gap” (disconnection from the network).
11. More Backups on LTO Tape
The rising threat of cyberattacks pushes businesses to adopt secure measures like LTO tape backups.
Key Benefits:
- LTO tape is inherently secure against cyber attacks due to its air-gap, i.e. the separation of the medium from the network.
- LTO tape scales simply by adding additional tapes.
- LTO tape is the most cost-effective professional long-term backup medium with a storage life of up to 30 years.
- LTO tape can easily be physically relocated to a location of your choice.
- Low energy consumption: both when writing and reading and especially in stand-by mode.
12. Scanning and Digitizing Historical Media
Increasing numbers of film, audio, and photo archives are being digitized at high resolutions, resulting in significant file sizes that are typically archived on LTO tape. Affordable, high-performance film scanners drive this trend further.
13. Introduction of LTO-10
The upcoming LTO-10 generation will increase storage density, offering 36TB per cartridge. This reduces physical storage requirements, benefiting larger installations.
14. Demand for Energy-Efficient Systems
With rising energy prices, the energy consumption of storage systems is also becoming increasingly relevant as a cost factor. As compliance requirements also include energy efficiency, this effect is further intensified. Here, too, LTO tape comes into play because it already has a high energy efficiency.
15. Extending Hard Drive Lifespan Through Refurbishment
Seagate sets an example by reconditioning and testing previously used hard drives for secondary use, prolonging their lifecycle. For instance, drives from data centers can be repurposed for less intensive applications.
Conclusion
As data volumes grow, the need for robust backup and archiving solutions becomes even more critical. Depending on specific requirements, mirroring can also ensure data availability for active production storage. Archiware P5 Synchronize offers versioning, snapshots, and other features to meet these needs.
