Optimizing the Storage of Unmanaged Media Assets – Project Archive for Content Storage

Unmanaged assets are typically external to traditional asset management applications, but exist in a variety of media and entertainment environments. In broadcast, examples include raw or original content, graphics and still images. In post-production, it can encompass any asset from raw content to finished projects, and anything in between. The amount of storage generated by these unmanaged assets often grows at an astonishing rate, which can lead to exorbitant storage costs when assets reside mainly on primary and production storage.

Imagine a post-production studio supporting advertising agencies, creating high-performing commercials for television and mobile streaming across a number of countries. A single commercial can create upwards of 50TB to 100TB, with 10 to 15 final versions presented for selection to the client agency. It’s also not uncommon for studios to create daily views for review showing a collage of everything filmed in a day. An average client can easily demand an output of 500TB to 1PB per year. All of the input must be kept as well, and the ratios of raw footage to finished product can reach staggering levels of upwards of 1200:1. To remain competitive in the M & E industry, it’s imperative that all content from a project, commercial or film is preserved as a single project for future use.

Although there are a number of tools to help organize and manage content, how do organizations deal with the sprawling data volumes and siloed assets that are NOT managed by an asset management application?

Spectra’s StorCycle storage lifecycle management software is here to solve this problem.

	StorCycle is designed to scan and identify inactive or finished files residing on the Primary Tier of storage that should be migrated. File attributes of unmanaged assets are identified and used to help users decide what content can be safely migrated.
	StorCycle can easily copy or migrate any data from a single project to a less expensive storage based on user-defined parameters or scan results. Metadata tags can be added to enable searchability at a later date.
	StorCycle is the ultimate and most cost-effective way to protect and perpetually store all of a company’s valuable assets utilizing encryption, integrity checks, checksums, and optional air gap protection.
	StorCycle provides seamless and transparent access to migrated assets. User-friendly searching and retrieval of files is fast and easy using HTML (or symbolic links.*)

With StorCycle, organizations are able to implement an integrated Perpetual Tier of storage that enables workflow automation in production environments. Unique to StorCycle, the software’s Project Archive feature allows media and entertainment organizations to store all digital assets in directories associated with a given client or project. As soon as a commercial is completed our previously mentioned post studio can have all associated files automatically moved off primary storage and archived to a less costly tier for perpetual retention. Not only does StorCycle automatically assign file metadata to each managed asset, but the software also allows users to add additional metadata, to enable granular searches and comprehensive asset identification. StorCycle’s Project Archive feature assures all content will be available and searchable as a single project – allowing single files in a project or the entire project to be searched for and restored.

*Available in a future release