Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/799353
11 STORAGE SOLUTIONS MARCH 2017 STORAGE SOLUTIONS retention in cloud storage where the content can be accessed through the Internet. Efforts by the Active Archive Alliance (www.activearchive.com), SNIA (www. snia-dmf.org/100year) and organizations directly associated with the media and entertainment industry, such as The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sci- ences (www.oscars.org/science-technology/council/ projects/digitaldilemma) and SMPTE (www.smpte.org) are working on methods and standards for long-term archiving of digital media assets. The higher latency of Internet access can be hidden by using local cloud storage gateways that offer a NAS-like front end access to the cloud storage for uploading and downloading content as needed or with combinations of local and cloud networked storage. Increasing access to fast WAN and MAN networks has also improved online content access. Such cloud storage gateways make implementation of cloud storage as a secondary and tertiary data silo possible and efficient. Ingest and data delivery data transfers of terabytes per day are possible on modern Internet networks (us- ing e.g. Aspera's FASP technology or Signiant Media Shuttle or some interesting solutions using RDMA for direct data transfer across the Internet). Front Porch Digital (now part of Oracle) built its DIVA archive using the AXF video file format that enables cloud archive applications. The Archive Xchange Format (AXF) is a SMPTE specification, ST 2034. AXF has capabilities that make it particularly attractive for archiving. Unlike LFTS, AXF is a file col- lection "wrapper" that can encapsulate any number of files of any type and size. AXF provides universal transport and interoperability for archives like MXF provides for media. Quantum showcased its Q-Cloud Vault long-term cloud storage service at the 2016 NAB Show. This is fully integrated within workflows powered by StorNext 5.3, Q-Cloud Vault to provide low-cost, Quantum-man- aged "cold storage" in the public cloud. Oracle announced in 2016 an archive cloud with costs of about $0.001/GB/month or about $0.012/ GB/year, based on magnetic tape storage. This equates to storing 1 petabyte (PB) of content for just $12,000 per year. XenData, a company specializing in digital ar- chiving and data protection equipment and services, has added support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Storage across its entire archive appliance and serv- er product range. Professional media and entertainment content was traditionally archived on film or analog videotapes. Today, the options available for archive media to store digital content depend on the preferences and existing infrastructure of digital archive facilities. Figure 3 gives the percentage distribution of archive media used by the survey participants. In our survey, 38.1 percent said they would use a private or public cloud for archiving in 2016, although only 2 percent currently stored their archives in a private or public cloud.1 Note that the 2017 professional media and enter- tainment survey is underway through May 15, 2017. Media and entertainment professions can participate using this link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/FPRW6Y5. There are many permutations of cloud storage that include private and public cloud resources and there are several company offerings that combine local, near-line storage with some type of cloud storage. In general, cloud storage is a form of near-line storage, although there are high-latency offerings, such as Am- azon's Glacier, that provide high-latency storage that is more like off-line storage. Thus, cloud storage can be effectively offline or near-line in terms of its perfor- mance for a remote user. All of the media applications for storage in the cloud will be a significant driver in overall cloud storage growth. We expect that cloud storage for all media and entertainment applications will increase almost 27-fold between 2015 and 2021. Cloud storage will play an increasingly important role in all aspects of professional media and entertainment. 2017 CREATIVE STORAGE CONFERENCE You can learn more about media storage in the cloud, as well as the growth in VR content in profession- al video, at the 2017 Creative Storage Conference (www.creativestorage.org), on May 24, 2017 in Culver City, CA. We will also discuss how this will drive new digital storage demand and technologies to support the high-data rates needed for captured content and cloud-based VR services. This is the 11 th year of the conference and we look forward to having you join us. Thomas M. Coughlin is president of Coughlin Associates and is a widely respected storage analyst and consul- tant. He has over 30 years in the data storage industry. 1 2016 Digital Storage in Media and Entertainment Survey, Coughlin Associates. www.tomcoughlin.com Figure 3