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Digital
Media Dictates a New Paradigm”
A
New Era of Digital Media Content
As
a result of rapid advances in computing and networking
technologies, combined with the continuing expansion
of internet infrastructure deployment - more and
more audio, video and image content is being digitized
for storage, processing, editing, feature enhancement
and streaming. The benefit of handling and streaming
media in the digital domain has become so compelling
that all new media content will likely be in digital
form within the next five years. The Exavio ExaVault
media storage system is specifically designed
to address these needs for storing audio, video
and imagery for the entertainment, broadcast,
content creation and delivery markets. |
Placing
A Value On Data
Exavio
believes that treating digital media as just another
form of data is fundamentally wrong. Digital media differs
in many respects including the quantity and value per
byte of content. In the data world, information is transactional,
dynamic and the value per byte of information is always
assumed to be very high. Digital media differs from
transactional data since it is usually written once
but read many times - hence it’s very stable.
It also has high value, but in the whole and not at
the byte-by-byte level. Unlike competitive offerings,
which are designed principally for the storage of enterprise
computer data, the Exavio ExaVault media storage system
is optimized for the exacting requirements of digital
media content creation and streaming.
 ExaVault
Media Storage System - Redefining streaming media storage
The
ExaVault Media Storage System is specifically designed
to provide on-demand storage and streaming of digital
media for applications like VoD, pre-and post prodcution,
near-line archive and real-time disk backup.
The
ExaVault provides unprecedented price/performance and
flexibility for on-demand applications. Depending on
the application requirement, the system can emulate
a network file system, streaming media sever, or a disk
based tape back-up system with the high density storage
required by digital media.
ExaVault
systems are capable of storing up to 3 terabytes (TB)
within a 1RU (about 4.5cm high) array. Multiple arrays
can be cascaded to form a high performance media server
system that provides scalable storage capacity in a
compact physical form factor and with a single point
of control.
Because
the ExaVault media storage system is purposely built
to support the business continuance of deep archiving
and the streaming of digital media across a broad spectrum
of throughput rates and storage capacities, a number
of features were engineered into the product to allow
the ExaVault to fit into existing and future digital
media environments.
ExaVault
Features:
Low
Cost - The ExaVault utilizes very low
cost IDE/ATA disc drives, the same drives uses in most
PC systems. These drives more than meet the performance
requirements of digital media storage at up to one-fifth
the cost of their equivalent capacity SCSI counterparts
and up one-tenth the cost of Fiber Channel drives.
Massively
Scalable - An ExaVault configured with
multiple arrays, unlike large foot print tape silos,
can store up to 120TB in a single 7 foot rack using
current disk drive densities. Mulitple ExaVaults can
be linked together to form even greater storage densities.
As disk drive densities grow, the ExaVault will be able
to leverage this to achieve even greater densities.
High
Performance, Off-the-shelf - The ExaVault
Media Storage System leverages the continuing performance
increases of standard technologies such as the Pentium
processor, PCI bus, IEEE 1394, and Gigabit Ethernet
to get the maximum performance out of the system. Today
the ExaVault systems can pump digital media at over
900Mbps over its Gigabit Ethernet interface, and can
support two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces per system.
This performance already rivals the performance of Fiber
Channel at roughly one-eighth the price, and when 10GE
interfaces become prevalent, the ExaVault will continue
to accelerate performance well past Fiber Channel technology.
Application
driven configuration flexibility - Whether the
applications are archive storage or an on-demand streaming
server, the ExaVault can be configured to optimize the
cost, performance, and fault tolerance needs.
Built-in
system flexibility - The ExaVault utilizes
the Linux operating system for all management, control,
networking, and application support of the storage and
streaming system - guaranteeing widespread universal
support.
Guaranteed Throughput
- VOD and streaming media applications require a system
to deliver several to hundreds of video streams at a
time. With 900 Mbps throughput over its Gigabit Ethernet
interface, ExaVault Media Storage Systems have the capability
to support any demanding video server environment, whether
serving a few or hundreds of video streams - and assures
on-time flow of data for optimal performance. Utilizing
the Gigabit Ethernet interface and the IP network transport
to provide a truly universal and low cost and scalable
solution, the cost, on a per active stream basis and
on a per video title storage basis is minimized.
 Power
Management - The ExaVault Media Storage
System provides the ability to power up or down any
individual disk tray module in the system under software
control . For archiving applications, this allows the
system to apply power to only the portion of the storage
needed, conserving power while lowering TCO (Total Cost
of Operation).
Removable
storage - The ExaVault Media Storage
System supports the ability to individually hot-swap
disk tray modules (a tray consists of three physical
drives). This creates immediate benefits for the physical
transport to shelf storage or swapping out programming
content in real-time. In addition, when combined with
RAID 5, the system can provide fault tolerant non-stop
protection against a disk drive failure in the system. |
