GeoSpatial Imaging Data Backup, Archiving, & Storage

The TeraStack^® Solution provides the GeoSpatial imaging industry a cost-effective way to securely and reliably to backup, archive, and store the expanding data storage requirements. Technology of today is becoming more and more digital especially as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), satellite imagery, and digital sensors are capturing large amounts of full motion video (FMV) and snapshots of the earth from space. This geospatial imaging data has to be analyzed by a multitude of different organizations around the clock to ensure the safety of not only military entities but all civilians in their day-to-day lives.

The large amount of geospatial imaging data that is generated by these capture methods is not only backed up and archived, but must be stored in a way that is still accessible for future analysis and data modeling that will occur over the years. Not only does the amount of data grow exponentially, but the amount of different media required and the equipment needed to house this data and have it accessible uses vast amounts of power. Data centers will soon be running out of available power as well as physical size as capacity needs get larger and larger as more and more information is becoming digital. The TBYTe^® provides an enterprise application server with up to 42 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.

Geospatial information has an extremely high data integrity, access, and speed requirement during in-depth analysis. These 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. When customer requirements require a buffer larger than 42TB, the TBYTe^® can be connected directly to an existing SAN still managed by our hierarchical storage management software for these high demand requests. Because this data is so sensitive in nature, virtual nearline data files are created as soon as geospatial imagery data begins to stream into the buffer. These files are saved onto Blu-ray media 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 providing for very high reliability and data integrity. TeraStack^® units can be easily removed, transported, stored on a shelf, or remounted in an entirely different unit. Geospatial imagery and satellite 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.

With the capacity of all types of media ever-increasing, whether magnetic or optical based, the one factor that is still not improving with magnetic media is the long term reliability. Optical media has created a technology that writes data to a standard form factor disc that is in a metallic format once written. This provides the long-term reliability that is needed for types of data generated that must be kept forever.

Geospatial imaging data availability is of paramount concern for storage of any long term critical information. 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. 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, TBYTe 8.14.28, and the TBYTe 8.14.42 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 geospatial data archiving.