Présentation Archive eXchange Format (AXF) par Front porch Digital - ficam june 2012

Front Porch DigitalMigrate – Manage – Market

AXF Presentation – FICAM – June 2012

2Migrate Manage Market Lynx

Our DIVAsolutions Family

2

• Legacy film and video tape asset

migration/preservation• Fastest, most cost efficient• Full SD and HD support• Preservation and mezzanine

formats generated in parallel

• CSM is the heart of the file

based facility

• DIVArchive is the first CSM

solution with full AXF support

• Interface to ALL media devices

and storage technologies

• 100s of Petabytes currently

under DIVArchive management

• Global facility connectivity and

distribution via DIVAnet

• Direct multi-format, multi-

platform content publishing

• Leverage all CSM stored

content to distribute and

market content

• Simple end user access to

all file based assets

• Most efficient and scalable

enterprise class workflow

SAMMAsoloSAMMArobot

Analog to Digital

• DIVAsolutions family as a

hosted Service in the Cloud

• Service currently in beta

• IT-centric Disaster Recovery,

CSM and MAM as a Service

• Provision services on the fly

• Leverages AXF for true asset

protection

• High SLA, limitless scalability

and globally distributed

• Big Data centric service for a

fraction of the typical costs of

S3, Azure, etc.

Online Publishing

DIVApublish

DIVArchiveDIVAnet

DIVAdirector

Content StorageManagement

DIVApublish

LYNX DIVAsolutionsin the Cloud

Big Data Services


What is AXF?

• AXF is a fully self-contained, self-describing file storage container

– think of it as advanced “ZIP”

• AXF does not overlap with MXF or other “media wrapper”

approaches as these are simply files inside an AXF Object

• AXF is based on an innovative “file system per object” approach

which fully abstracts the underlying operating system, storage

technology and file system

• Standard support for all storage technologies – now and into the

future!


Structured

Unstructured

Metadata Essence Files Ancillary Files

Proprietary

Open

What is AXF?

Asset

orCollection

Components

Provenance Fixity Context ReferenceAccess Control

OAIS

Universal Storage Agnostic File SystemFile System

AXF Object

Essence Files Ancillary Files


AXF and Storage

AXF is Storage Technology, Operating System and File System Agnostic.

It can store objects to various storage technologies, formats and devices

AXF Object

Spinning Disk

Data TapeLTFS

Data Tape

Solid State Disk

USB Flash Media

Future Storage???

DVD

Blu-Ray

Holographic


AXF on Storage MediaA

XF

Ob

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AX

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AXF Object1

AXF Object2

AXF ObjectN

Me

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Me

tad

ata

C

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File 1

AX

F F

ile

Fo

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File 2

AX

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File N

AX

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AX

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Metadata

Payload

File

Payload


AXF Technology

• AXF Objects can scale to any size and encapsulate any number of

files with full support for media spanning

• No need to upgrade existing systems as AXF does not rely on

modern tape functionality such as partitioning

• AXF guarantees long term compatibility and resiliency with self-

describing features for both AXF Objects and AXF Media

• AXF is an IT-centric implementation and is not limited to media files

alone (metadata, documents, image files, etc.)


What About TAR?

• Tape ARchive (TAR) format has been around for many decades

• Despite following established standards there is no true

“standard” TAR implementation

• TAR is an archaic format which cripples the core value of the

CSM solution as it does not allow timecode based partial restore,

etc.

• TAR does violate most of our key storage goals (e.g. Open

Archival Information System features such as fixity, provenance,

reference, no resiliency features, etc.)


What About LTFS?

• The Linear Tape File System (LTFS) is basically that…a simple file system for linear data tape

• LTFS relies on modern data tape partitioning functionality and makes data tapes appear as “removable USB drives”

• LTFS does not offer preservation features such as those defined in the OAIS model

• There are no standards bodies which endorse LTFS

• Useful for the physical “transport” of file based content as a video tape replacement but not for long term storage or preservation


Key LTFS Limitations

• LTFS has no concept of media encapsulation forcing users to rely

on rudimentary folder hierarchies to form important asset

relationships and context

• LTFS cannot scale as it has no support for spanning across storage

media limiting file collection sizes

• LTFS is a data tape based technology which does not apply to disk

or other storage formats – not universal!

• Unfortunately neither LTFS nor TAR help us realize our long term

storage and preservation goals


AXF, TAR, LTFS at a glanceAXF TAR LTFS

Simplifies file management by encapsulating files

(encapsulation of any file)� �

Scales to tens of millions files per object. Allows

limitless object and file sizes.�

Maintains on-media catalog for content stored� �

Supports any storage technology (Spinning Disk,

Solid State Disk, Flash Media, LTFS Data tape, Data

Tape, etc.)

� �

Supports any generation of LTO, IBM TS11xx, Oracle

T10000x, Sony SAITx, etc.� �

Includes resiliency features allowing media catalogs

to be recovered.� �

Includes long term preservation features as defined in

the OAIS model.�

Supports Multiple Operating Systems.� � �


AXF? LTFS? Both?

• Despite many limitations, LTFS does have a valid place as a file

based asset transport mechanism.

• LTFS can be used to move assets between remote systems and

advanced Content Storage Management (CSM) solutions such as Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive system but it is not viable as a

long-term archive technology.

• DIVArchive leverages the Archive eXchange Format – or AXF – to

ensure long-term accessibility, transportability, protection and preservation of your most valuable assets.


OpenAXF.org

• OpenAXF.org is the community portal for the AXF initiative

• The website includes news, documentation, videos and

whitepapers providing technical details on AXF

• This is the focal point for the AXF community – please sign up

now!

• Front Porch Digital has contributed our AXF intellectual property

to SMPTE and is actively working on its standardization

Questions ?

Thank you…

Guillaume Neveux: [email protected]

Michel Jambart: [email protected]