Seven Concepts of Media-Aware Storage Architectures

Joey Faust

Storage, whether customized to media or more traditionally implemented, is the centerpiece of file-based workflow. As media qualities, sizes and uses increase, the need for faster and better storage architectures also increases. Both improvement to existing storage models and development of new functionality in the space is needed, including: (1) specialized hardware and software stacks that streamline access to media and performance of streaming and file copies; (2) partial file restoration to facilitate disk space and bandwidth optimization in tiered storage scenarios; (3) automatic media processing to simplify ingesting, appending to, trimming, moving and editing media files; (4) automatic cataloging to generate useful, media-specific metadata with minimal user interaction; (5) proxy workflows to optimize bandwidth used for production and post-production activities; (6) format independence to provide access to appropriate codecs, resolutions, and wrappers across multiple production and distribution channels; and (7) service-oriented storage to enhance and standardize the functionality provided by storage applications to make them more useful in an integrated facility. Many of these models are already present in products on the market today, but the industry is still in the early stages of implementation. As the technology matures, these architectures will become pervasive.

Print ISSN
Electronic ISSN
2160-2492
Published
2009-03
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J14974