On October 20, Spectra hosted SpectraLIVE Customer Edition, the first-ever fully customer-focused virtual event for Spectra. SpectraLIVE Customer Edition provided attendees with a glimpse into the real-life implementations of eight Spectra end users from varying market segments (think general IT to media and entertainment to national laboratories). Presenters shared their specific challenges and how their partnership with Spectra helped them ultimately achieve their IT goals. The event wrapped with an Exascale Panel discussion that included two national laboratory end users along with two subject matter experts from Spectra. Here’s a quick recap of each session:
- Imperial War Museums (IWM) is comprised of five sites across the UK that manage a vast repository of conflict coverage dating back from the First World War to present day. IWM’s
goal is to collect, preserve and share objects and content that capture the human experience of modern war. This often means digitizing films, videotapes and audio on original media before it degrades. They were faced with the challenge of indefinitely storing over 1.5PB of assets and planned on adding approximately 10TB per month to that archive. Learn more about how they addressed their storage challenges with a multi-site, genetically diverse solution from Spectra, Axiell and Veritas here.
- National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) focuses on delivering earth observation systems faster in order to more quickly alert the public on impending national disasters to protect life and property. Their enterprise-level archive, CLASS (Comprehensive Large Array Storage System), both stores and delivers large satellite data sets and other environmental data to users that need data for analytics and product development – as bulk orders or on a subscription-basis. To achieve their goals, NOAA utilizes a hybrid cloud architecture for their archive, which consists of over 15PB of data, all of which will never be deleted. They look to tape as their primary storage because of its robust technology –
including its scalability, reliability in comparison to HDDs, life span, low energy consumption and TCO. Their tape archive includes two Spectra TFinity tape libraries managed by their HPSS HSM for ingest, preservation and dissemination of data, as well as a cloud copy on AWS for disaster recovery (DR). Learn more here.
- Simons Foundation and its Flatiron Institute are dedicated to advancing basic science – from applied mathematics to biology to neuroscience and beyond – all via data science and high-performance computing. Using Linux across the board, Simons manages between 30PB and 40PB of data, with their biggest sources of data on CEPH, which is distributed throughout
multiple locations. The Simons Foundation uses a Spectra solution with StorCycle® software to move data to tape and disk. Previously using in-house scripts to move user data to secondary storage targets, users at Simons now seamlessly move their data to a directory for archive, and StorCycle automates the rest. StorCycle has helped them streamline the process of archiving projects to low-cost, low-power tape for long-term storage. Get the full story here.
- The Hormel Institute at the University of Minnesota needed to store vast amounts of data produced by their Titan Krios Cryo-Electron Microscope for structural biology research, both for short-term access as
well as for long-term preservation. Consistently running out of disk space was a challenge for Hormel, and with a data set comprised of small files and files not easily compressed, they needed a solution that would accommodate aggregate/chunk data that could be compressed while in the hardware. Hormel sought a Spectra object storage tape solution with Globus software to move, store and manage their data. Get the details here.
- Notre Dame Studios discussed their long relationship with Spectra as they have ventured into the realm of unstoppable digital asset growth. Faced with the challenge of doing more with less, Notre Dame Studios has felt the all-too-common pressure of expensive disk systems filled with content. By using Spectra object storage tape with CatDV DAM, Notre Dame Studios was able to streamline
their workflow and manage their archiving needs with a modular setup easily adaptable to future needs. Their implementation has provided their producers with the ability to search for, find and restore clips that they need for editing, with no assistance from IT. Seeing the positive impacts made in the Studios, multiple departments within the University have adopted similar workflows to store and protect their data. Watch their presentation here.
- SRP Companies, a direct store delivery solution provider, offers merchandise to over 60,000 retail locations across the U.S. and Canada. Their data center moves
approximately 10TB per day of data – primarily in their ERP system. SRP sought out a storage device for their Veeam repositories and selected the Spectra BlackPearl NAS. In their session, SRP shared their experience with ransomware attack, iterating how important it is to have backups protected from their own network. Find out how they accomplished their goals here.
- The Exascale Panel Discussion moderated by
Spectra CTO Matt Starr, included commentary from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Robin Goldstone, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s James Thompson and Spectra’s Matt Ninesling. With an eye on the future, the discussion focused in on the challenges that arise with mega-sized archives – such as how to feasibly retain an exabyte(s) of data while balancing cost and speed of access, how to find data using meaning metadata, and finally, which storage technologies will best accommodate the aforementioned challenges. Catch the discussion here.
Did you miss the SpectraLIVE Customer Edition event? Stream the recorded sessions here!
To learn more or register for other SpectraLIVE offerings, including virtual meetings with Spectra executives and product specialists, monthly webinars and on-demand content, click here.
