{"id":5078,"date":"2024-05-24T21:23:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.archiware.com\/blog\/?p=5078"},"modified":"2024-05-24T21:23:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:23:38","slug":"migrating-archived-data-for-security-and-cost-effectiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.archiware.com\/blog\/migrating-archived-data-for-security-and-cost-effectiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Archived Media Data \u2013 Migrating for Security and Cost-Effectiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The current generation of LTO tape (LTO-9 released in 2021) stores 300% more data than the generation from 2015 (LTO-7). That’s 18TB today on LTO-9 versus just 6TB in 2017 on LTO-7. The same 18TB of data on an LTO-9 cartridge can be stored in the cheapest cloud services for approximately $220 per year, with additional costs for accessing it again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023 Sony discontinued its ‘Optical Disk Archive’ product and in 2024 (the time of writing), Chinese scientists have 125TB fitting on a single optical disk<\/a> in the lab, using new technologies that have yet to come to the market, but inevitably will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this varied and interesting landscape for archive storage, commercial archivists have not just to think about which storage to use, but how to move strategically between formats, from one decade to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Media Archive<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let’s recap a little by what is meant here by the term ‘media archive’. Customers in many vertical markets (including media and entertainment, healthcare, and government), create media assets which are relatively large in size and cost money to create. These are audio and video assets, medical imaging data, 3D survey data and many others, with video being the most common. Because these files are typically larger than office spreadsheets and word processing documents, they need to be moved from traditional storage where they’re immediately accessible, to cheaper storage as soon as practically possible. At the same time, because they are costly to reproduce, they need to be retained for the foreseeable future, so they’re available for re-use, repurposing etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common use case is the production of a TV episode or movie. The production creates hundreds of separate files containing video, which are edited together into a final product. Upon delivery of the final product, it makes no sense to delete the hundreds of video files, since they might be useful in the future. At the same time, they cannot be left to reside on the original storage that allowed them to be edited. They need to move to ‘cold storage’ where they can remain into the future, at minimal cost, but with ease of location should they be required again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media archive is typically stored on LTO tape or cloud storage, the most cost effective and reliable options at the current time. The cost of keeping these assets for the next fifty years might be considerable. It is therefore sensible to review where they’re being stored, if they really need to be retained going forwards, and whether to move them to a better storage medium in order to save money and keep them secure. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • How long do LTO tapes last?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How long will the LTO drive used to read the tapes last?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How is the drive repaired if it fails?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How much is cloud storage costing, per year, per decade?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Can cloud storage be trusted with a single vendor?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • What is the cloud vendor doing to mitigate against storage failures themselves?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Should assets archived 20 years ago but never accessed still be retained?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    P5 Data Mover, a Migration Tool<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    This function of providing storage flexibility for those assets that have already been archived is provided within Achiware’s P5 Archive ecosystem, by the ‘Data Mover’ product, which is able to perform the following functions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • Filter data in the archive, using stored meta-data, to determine if it should be migrated\/duplicated from its existing storage to alternative storage (e.g. from LTO-5 to LTO-9). Based on the results of the filtering:\n
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      • Perform data migration, by moving assets from one type of storage to another. The previous storage can then be erased\/reused or no longer paid for in the case of cloud.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Perform data duplication, by placing a second-copy of an asset on another type of storage while keeping the original, providing redundancy of storage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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