Video Archive: XenData

XenData Software delivers digital storage solutions that scale from terabytes to petabytes. Leading organizations in broadcast, healthcare, engineering and science use XenData software for archiving and retrieving digital video, medical images and a wide range of scientific and engineering data.

At Last ... Affordable Digital Archives
Until recently, an automated digital video archive was expensive and required highly proprietary solutions. Consequently, most video archives still consist of shelves of Beta, VHS and DV tapes, making video assets much less accessible and hence less useful than they could otherwise be.

XenData Digital Archive
Today, even a large digital video archive can be fully automated at a reasonable cost using a robotic data tape library attached to a Windows server running XenData software. The solution meets the demanding requirements of the broadcast industry and other professional video applications.


Digital video archive solutions that run XenData software are totally non-proprietary, conforming to IT industry standards throughout and seamlessly interfacing with your changing standards-based digital infrastructure.

Industry Standards Protect Your Investment
Digital video archive solutions that run XenData software are totally non-proprietary, conforming to IT industry standards throughout. Our commitment to standards means that a digital video archive running XenData software delivers the following:

Standard Windows File System
Nearline disk, nearline tape and offline tape cartridges are presented as a Windows logical drive letter. Video files are written to and retrieved from the archive as though from a standard magnetic disk drive. The digital archive accepts all file types, for example MPEG, AVI, MXF and presents them in a Windows file system.

Industry Leading Tape Formats
The physical tape format may be LTO, DLT or SAlT- the leading formats in the IT industry.

Tape Interchange File Format
The file format used to write to the tape is the industry standard TAR. This ensures that files may be read by a wide range of third party utilities and applications.

Network Protocols
The software is optimized for standard Windows network protocols and FTP file transfers.

Industry Standard File Security
The file server integrates fully with the Microsoft Windows security model, based on Active Directory. This makes it easy to ensure that video file access is limited to authorized users.

Our strong adherence to industry standards means that the digital video archive will seamlessly interface with your changing standards-based digital infrastructure.

Accessible Multi-Tiered Storage
Many video facilities effectively have only two tiers of storage: very expensive 'On-Air' storage and video tapes held on the shelf. By introducing a digital video archive with multi-tiered storage into a video facility, its operations are transformed. The digital archive is a key element that enables the storage, cataloging, searching and retrieval of massive amounts of video media.

A digital video archive running XenData software enhances the tier 1 'On-Air' storage and replaces video tape with additional tiers of digital data storage:

Tier 2 - Nearline magnetic disk arrays
Tier 2 - Nearline data tapes held within the robotic tape library

XenData software also manages data tapes that have been exported from the tape library, creating a fourth offline tier of storage. This can be used for very infrequently accessed video files.

XenData Software Functionality
The use of a standard Windows file system interface means that the archive is easy to implement within your overall system architecture. Furthermore, it means that multiple applications can be simultaneously writing to and reading from the archive. Additional functionality includes:

File Transfers at Many Times RealTime
Video files are transferred to and from the archive over the network at many times real-time. High speed transfers minimize workflow bottlenecks which is especially useful in broadcast facilities. The solution is optimized for FTP and standard Windows network transfers.

Partial File Restore for All File Types
The solution supports partial retrieval of large video files of all types. When partial files are requested, the tape is driven rapidly to the beginning of the required section and only the requested fragments of a file are retrieved.

Manages Nearline Disk, Nearline Tape and Offline
The administrator defines policies for RAID caching that can be tailored to the different file types and folders. For example, proxies may be retained permanently on nearline magnetic disk while high resolution video files are held only on data tape.

Data Protection via Tape Replication
The software automatically generates replica tape cartridges that may be exported from the library for off-site retention. The system can be rapidly rebuilt from tape in case of disaster recovery.

Scalable from Terabytes to Petabytes
Digital video archives running XenData software are scalable in so many ways. The software supports both scalable tape libraries and multiple libraries. If the library hardware can be expanded by adding extra tape cartridge slots, the software is easily upgraded to manage the extra capacity. Alternatively, an additional tape library can be added to increase the archive capacity.

XenData software supports up to 64 terabytes of magnetic disk cache and an unlimited number of tape cartridges that are held offline.

XenData software will manage a wide range of digital video archives. For example, when configured with the appropriate capacity of tape library and magnetic disk cache, the solution meets the needs of an organization with a small archive of only 1,000 hours up to those of a large broadcaster with over 100,000 hours of material.

Additional Information

Digital Video Archive Solutions with XenData Software ( 286 KB )
Video - XenData File Folder Interface ( view )
Video - XenData SXL-1 Video Archive System - How to Configure Archive Policies ( view )

 

For more information on XenData software, please contact the experts at LH Computer Services.