Digital Multimedia Forensic Evidence Data Storage
The TeraStack® Solution's digital multimedia forensic evidence data storage solution provides law enforcement agencies a secure and reliable way to store the growing data for today's digital forensic evidence that is generated in a multitude of ways. Police officers and investigators are capturing evidence with the use of digital cameras, video cameras, and audio records directly
from crime scenes, as well as scattered around a city as tracking of a potential suspect is completed. Being able to catalog this information in a way that is easily accessed by investigators and 3rd parties is crucial to the successful capture of suspects in the field. Electronic criminal record data storage is creating a storage problem that is not easily managed with today's current data storage technology. According to an article by Jenna F. Leavitt of Association Law & Policy, "The increased reliance on computers, electronic information has become extremely important in litigation."
As data storage technology improves and data generated by the above mediums escalates, it is becoming more and more expensive to maintain this large amount of digital multimedia evidence forensic data, which is quickly becoming Petabytes and Exabytes in size. Not only does the cost of traditional data storage systems become exponential as technology increases but management issues become a nightmare. Quick and easy management of digital forensic evidence data is becoming crucial to be able to complete and accurately investigate all of the cases that are faced by law enforcement agencies today. The TBYTe® provides an enterprise application server with up to 28 terabytes (TB) of online data storage and up to eight hot-swappable 6.25TB optical volumes for up to 50 terabytes (TB) of nearline data storage. The TBYTe® is a scalable data storage solution utilizing hierarchical storage management providing online, nearline, and offline data storage capabilities in one solution.
Online files are managed with an energy efficient multi-core enterprise application server with significant RAID cache for application support and during peak processing periods. The scalable 6-28TB buffer acts as a landing zone for incoming digital forensic evidence data. When customer requirements require a buffer larger than 28TB, the TBYTe® can be connected directly to an existing SAN still managed by our hierarchical storage management software. Virtual nearline data files are created as soon as data begins to stream into the buffer. These files are saved onto Blu-ray data storage technology and stored in optical media volumes called TeraStack® units. Bit level write verification is performed at the time of write for each Blu-ray disc. TeraStack® units can be easily removed, transported, stored on a shelf, or remounted in an entirely different unit. This process is what gives IT managers peace of mind when saving data that is vital to each and every case. Data maintained within the TeraStack® is accessible immediately after it is remounted within a system. Multiple TBYTe® units may be clustered together into a single cohesive solution, providing virtually limitless expansion capabilities offering a very scalable storage solution.
As digital multimedia forensic evidence data is needed to be maintained for many years as cases go "cold" or criminals sit in prison data will age and have a need to be migrated with traditional systems. IT administrators have long had to deal with migrating data to new storage media technologies or new systems altogether due to the short lifespan of the data storage technologies. Hard drives have an approximate 3-5 year useful lifecycle and tape follows closely with a 5-7 year lifecycle. The 3-5 year shuffle of hard drives and the painful 5-7 year migration of magnetic tapes will soon be an issue of the past for long term data retention with the introduction of high-density optical media data storage technology. Often the short lifetimes of tape and hard drive media have resulted in the use of redundant backup practices to compensate for their shortfall. Blu-ray optical media data integrity is rated by the manufacturer for up to 100 years on write-once media and over 50 years on rewritable media.
Hie Electronics, Inc. offers the TeraStack® Solution TBYTe 8.6.6 and the TBYTe 8.14.28 multi-tiered storage and application processing platforms providing a "data center in box" approach to critical data backup that can help alleviate many of the space, power, and cost limitations associated with today's storage environments. Whether a data storage technology refresh is necessary or some efficiency improvements need to be made, the TeraStack® Solution provides a turn-key system that can help solve many of the problems associated with today's storage issues dealing with forensic evidence.
