Maintaining a safe and reliable environment for our client's valuable media content is of utmost importance. The environment must be safe and reliable and provide the best possible execution for the Mediabank services.
To achieve the optimal environment for security and execution, NEP stores Medibank client's media content in our own data centers throughout the world.
Currently, Mediabank uses four storage services, of which Amazon provides two.
Our own High Velocity- (HVS) and High-Density Storages (HDS) are maintained by NEP.
Currently, the following storage services are available from the Mediabank platform.
- NEP, High-Velocity Storage (HVS)
- NEP, High-Density Storage (HDS)
- Amazon, AWS Glacier storage
- Amazon, AWS Deep Glacier storage
High-Velocity Storage - A High-Speed Storage, enabling instant access to all the most actual and valuable Media content. It is mandatory storage, enabling services like Review & Approval, Live-ingest, Automation, M-boxes and Proxy files for archive browsing, etc. The minimum storage is 1 TB, included in the monthly fee. Professional and Enterprise customers may need considerable more when utilizing additional services as Live or File Ingest.
High-Density Storage - When the media content no longer has the "top market" value or no longer is needed daily, it is moved to a high-density storage service to obtain a lower storage cost. The downside is a slightly reduced bandwidth/speed resulting in a certain delay in the retrieval time.
AWS Glacier storage - This is an alternative to Mediabank High-Density storage. Customers may achieve storage at a lower cost, but the retrieval time is substantially higher than from the NEP HDS storage. It also introduces an additional retrieval cost. This storage is not available for Basic price plan clients.
AWS Deep Glacier storage - The ultimate low-cost choice could be the Amazon Deep Glacier. Due to its very long retrieval/extraction times, it is unsuitable for day-to-day business but excellent for outdated material. Unfortunately, this storage is not available for Basic price plan clients.
Storage naming?
Today's storage facilities are so versatile that these terms may be misleading or not specific enough. Mediabank uses the terms "copy" or "move" to describe the movements of the assets between the different storage solutions. Normally, to avoid terminology confusion, the use and meaning of these terms are discussed between NEP and our clients prior to every installation.
Note!
The media content in the High Velocity- and High-Density Storages offers high reliability, but NEP recommends an additional storage provider for optimal security.
About standard functionality regarding storage:
- To maintain basic functionality, a customer account must have at least 1TB of High-Velocity Storage (HVS). (Mandatory in every installation)
- A Basic price plan customer can decide to use the High-Velocity Storage only.
- Content can, in all cases, only be moved between the High Velocity- and High-Density Storage. The content can not be copied between the two storages.
- Content may be moved or copied from NEP HVS and/or NEP HDS Storages to AWS Glacier- or AWS Deep Glacier storage.
- Currently, Mediabank does not support the implementation of both AWS storage services in one account. Moving content between Glacier and Deep Glacier is therefore not implemented.
- Deleted content is put into quarantine and is kept for 10 days before it is unrecoverable. Contact NEP support to recover accidentally deleted material. Mediabank supports this service on all storage solutions.
- Restored material from AWS is deleted from the HVS 7 days after retrieval. (Original still intact on AWS)
Despite the storage location, media content and metadata can be shared between Mediabank accounts using ACL (Acces Control Lists), e.g., enabling Rightsholders or project managers to share their media content with clients.
Even the media maintenance tasks and tools are available at the user's fingertips on every storage location.
Storage management
To keep the High-Velocity Storage as a working environment and not a storage place for outdated material, Mediabank offers automated workflows to optimize the working environment and storage costs.
Typical rules could be:
- When the consumed high-velocity storage capacity reaches 80%, move media content not used/viewed within the last three months to high-density storage or AWS.
- Weekly/Monthly routines to check for outdated material are to be moved to low-cost storage.
- Media content with certain metadata is to be deleted permanently after six months.
These rules are configured during installation and optimized based upon customer routines and workflows.
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