Storage Networking Times

Issue 8, May 2008

Spotlight on:
Long-Term Digital Information Retention & Preservation (LT-DIRP)
Jeff Porter, Data Management Forum, www.snia.org/forums/dmf om

The SNIA DMF Spearheads Formation of the Long-Term Digital Information Retention & Preservation Working Group (LT-DIRP)

Building on the results of the SNIA Data Management Forum’s (DMF) 100 Year Archive Requirements Survey the Association has taken several steps to help storage and information managing professionals improve their long-term information retention and preservation practices.

At the forefront of these efforts is the formation of a Long-Term Digital Information Retention & Preservation Technical Working Group (LT-DIRP TWG) whose objectives include defining a new logical format standard and best practices for logical and physical storage migration. To achieve these objectives the LT-DIRP TWG will work to develop a new application-centric standard called a Self-Describing Self-Contained Data Format (SD-SCDF). This standard will define a ‘preservation-oriented’ logical container consisting of the content (the data) and associated preservation metadata, including reference information, integrity and authenticity controls, audit records, and potentially event readers.

With more than 70 percent of survey respondents saying they are 'highly dissatisfied' with their ability to assure that they will be able to read and interpret their retained information in 50 years, the study results clearly articulated a critical need for well-defined practices and standards associated with the long-term retention and preservation of information. The requirements to keep information long term exist now, but the existing technologies to support those requirements are costly and complex.

The second related activity underway is the creation of a common lexicon in the form of a terminology white paper, “Building a terminology bridge for long-term digital information retention and preservation.” Common, unifying terminology, that is consistent with best practices and scale to manage all the information over the long-term, is needed by all practitioners. This document is available for review now. If you are interested in contributing or reviewing the current version please email dmfinfo@advisorygroups.snia.org.

Membership in this newly formed LT-DIRP TWG is open to all SNIA member companies. To learn more about how to get involved visit http://www.snia.org/apps/org/workgroup/lttwg. To download a copy of the complete 100 Year Archive requirements survey report go to http://www.snia-dmf.org/100year.

Data Protection Initiative is Hard at Work!

The Data Protection Initiative (DPI) is pleased to announce the availability of the DPI Members Buyers Guide (Third Edition). This valuable resource guide provides an in-depth look at Continuous Data Protection (CDP), Data Deduplication and Space Reduction (DDSR) and Virtual Tape Library (VTL) technologies, and how these technologies can be utilised to reduce complexity in your organisation.

This Buyers Guide supports the mission of the DPI to evangelise data protection technologies by acting as the world-wide-authority and resource on data protection solutions. As a community of developers, integrators, and IT professionals we are collaborating to produce tools like this to educate the market on the benefits, technologies and options available. Click here to download a copy of your very own. All products included within the guide are from DMF member companies.

Newest DMF Special Interest Group – Already Producing Results

Data Deduplication and Space Reduction (DDSR) is a Special Interest Group focussed on educating the industry on the benefits of storage capacity optimisation.

The DDSR SIG is working to raise the awareness of data deduplication technology and its customer benefits. This includes contributed articles, a new chapter in the DMF DPI Members Buyer's Guide, and the completion of a new SNIA tutorial that will be presented at SNW and other SNIA and partner conferences. The next project includes the development of industry-approved terms and definitions related to data deduplication and space reduction for eventual inclusion in the SNIA dictionary. 

Current members companies of the DDSR SIG include Data Domain, EMC, Hewlett Packard, NEC Corporation of America, NetApp, Permabit Technologies, Quantum, and Sepaton. Would you like to get involved? Visit us at www.snia.org/forums/dmf.

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