Most broadcasters do not lose content in a single disaster. They lose it slowly: files left on production storage until it fills, drives on shelves nobody can read, and tapes whose contents nobody recorded. A good archive plan prevents all three.
Start with what you keep
Before choosing storage, sort your content into three groups:
- Active: projects being edited or aired this week.
- Recent: finished work you may reuse in the coming months.
- Archive: everything you must or want to keep for years.
Each group belongs on a different kind of storage. Keeping all three on production storage is the most expensive way to run a facility, and the slowest for the editors who share it.
Match each group to a storage tier
Active work belongs on fast shared storage, so every editor works from the same media. Recent work can move to nearline disk or object storage, where it stays online but costs less. Archive content belongs on LTO tape, which costs the least per terabyte, uses almost no power when idle and can be kept off-line.
The goal is not to buy the most storage. It is to keep each file on the cheapest storage that still meets how quickly you need it back.
Keep two copies, and keep one off-line
One copy is not an archive; it is a risk. Keep at least two copies of everything in the archive, on separate media, and keep one of them off-line or off-site. An off-line tape cannot be encrypted by ransomware or lost in the same incident as the first copy.
Make it findable before you make it safe
An archive nobody can search is an archive nobody uses. Before content moves to tape, make sure it is catalogued in a media asset management system with useful metadata and a low-resolution proxy. Then producers can find and preview a clip without anyone loading a tape, and restore only the part they need.
Automate the movement
Do not rely on people remembering to archive. Set policies that move finished projects from production storage to nearline, and from nearline to tape, after a set time or when a project is marked complete. Data management software applies the rules and keeps track of every file.
Plan for the next generation of tape
Tape formats move forward every few years. Choose a library that can take newer drives and media, and plan a migration every other generation so older cartridges are copied forward while drives that can read them are still available.
A simple checklist
- Content sorted into active, recent and archive.
- A storage tier chosen for each group.
- Two copies of the archive, one off-line.
- Every archived asset catalogued with metadata and a proxy.
- Policies that move content automatically.
- A plan for the next tape generation.
Cinthamani designs archives around these steps, with Spectra Logic libraries, StorageDNA, eMAM and DDP shared storage. See how we build archives.