05/01/2009

Highly-secure long-term data storage solution

Hard disks are fast replacing tapes and optical media in all phases of data archiving. However, most conventional hard disk systems are generally unsuitable for long-term storage. FAST LTA (long term archiving) reports that its Silent Cubes are the first solution designed solely for highly-secure long-term storage of permanent data.

‘The storage devices are exceptionally secure against data loss, hardware malfunction and mis-configuration,’ the firm adds. ‘Silent Cubes are the first and only storage system using hard-disks of three different manufacturers within one storage unit and thereby eliminating the danger arising from faulty batches. Even if four hard disks were to fail at the same time, no data would ever be lost. In addition the storage unit has a redundancy level of four. All data can easily be replicated to a second location or one of FAST LTA`s central data centres if necessary and thereby the level of security can be enhanced further. The software to enable replication is included.’
The company also reports that its WORM (Write Once Read Many) Controller protects all data in the storage units against lost and manipulation at the lowest hardware level. ‘All components of the systems are optimised for longevity and the system automatically and regularly checks itself (Internal Digital Audit) and informs the service technicians if anything is wrong.
Silent Cubes are ultra-scalable up to Petabyte level and, because they are small and silent, they can easily be stacked in a 19 inch rack mount.’
Silent Cubes are suited to a wide array of backup and archiving applications exceeding approx. 1 TB in data volume per year. The company adds that the system is specially suited for:
• Long-term storage of medical data (PACS/DICOM)
• Secure archiving of file, email and database servers
• Revision-safe long-term storage of digital documents
• Legally compliant long-term archiving of backup sets.