Spectra Logic: BlackPearl Enhancements and Certification Program

Spectra Logic Corporation announced several feature enhancements to its BlackPearl Deep Storage Gateway and client certification program.

BlackPearl, which provides a single interface to tape and disk using cloud protocols, has gained traction across multiple vertical markets since its introduction in 2013. The BlackPearl ecosystem is rapidly becoming a popular choice for end users and resellers alike, as content and data management continue to play an increasingly pivotal role in our digital age.

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Three key BlackPearl features available include:

• Public cloud storage: It can automatically send a copy of data to the public cloud for customers who seek content distribution with a cloud initiative, or who use cloud for DR.

• Replication: It has the ability to automatically replicate from one BlackPearl system to another, allowing an active/active geographical separation of data.

• Access content faster: It delivers online archive expansion, which enables nearly instant access to content, and accelerates the overall workflow and system response time. Less frequently accessed content can be stored on company’s ArcticBlue nearline disk, and rarely accessed content can be archived indefinitely on firm’s tape library family. This feature includes an automatic time-based delete feature that can be customized by the storage administrator.

The BlackPearl Certification Program was created to ensure the clients created by our partners and customers are robust and reliable. The program includes comprehensive testing of all key features and any optional features needed to support the use of BlackPearl in a customer environment. Testing is conducted at company’s dedicated certification test lab located at its global HQs, to offer partners and customers an option for fast, cost-effective client testing and certification.

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“Because Spectra customers often trust multiple vendors in their workflows, it is critical that products from multiple vendors work together seamlessly. Our Certification Program ensures this seamless integration,” said Matt Starr, CTO, Spectra Logic. “Additionally, in BlackPearl’s latest version, customers will benefit from increased throughput, simplified workflows and an improved overall user experience.“

The BlackPearl is deployed across a wide range of private and public sectors in markets as diverse as genomics and healthcare, general IT management, high-performance computing, media and entertainment, research and education and video surveillance. Some current BlackPearl customers include The British Film Institute, the Imperial War Museum, Pacific Biosciences, The University of Chicago and WCBS, the flagship station of the CBS Television Network.

“Marquis’s Project Parking allows Avid users to archive their projects into BlackPearl. The solution provides an easy-to-use archiving system which is scalable and resilient while remaining very cost effective. Customers of all sizes can benefit from this simple archive solution that seamlessly uploads and restores both project and media files between BlackPearl and Avid,” said Simon Fearn, product manager, Marquis Broadcast Ltd.

“CatDV’s clients come from a range of sectors including broadcast and production, commerce, education, house of worship, historic archives and libraries, as well as retail and sports. All of our customers need to organize and secure their valuable content, typically across collaborating teams, at reasonable cost. Content creators using CatDV with BlackPearl can quickly and efficiently search off line content-including previewing lower resolution proxies-then find, retrieve and repurpose original material. CatDV’s latest integration with BlackPearl provides fast and intuitive web, desktop, mobile and embedded NLE tools that save time, money and stress as new content is made,” said Dave Clack, CEO, Square Box Systems Ltd., developer of the CatDV media asset management system.

“The integration with Spectra’s BlackPearl with Tiger Series shared storage solutions provides an easy to operate and transparent system for media, and volume management and backup. The direct connection between BlackPearl and Tiger Replication and Tiering gives our customers working in media and entertainment, security and surveillance, and STEM markets an easy and complete solution for storing and securing their high-resolution digital media files,” said Angus Mackay, marketing director, Tiger Technology.

“IPV and Spectra offer an intelligent archive solution for media and entertainment customers looking to integrate an archiving system or migrate legacy HSM systems. The system’s built-in intelligence and BlackPearl ensure that assets reside on the most appropriate storage media from on premise systems to the cloud. Aligned with this intelligent storage is predictive retrieval, which provides a number of facilities to different scenarios: in a dynamic news-based environment, IPV’s Curator allows easy re-use of media assets, thereby increasing their value in these fast-turnaround workflows. Retrospectively, Curator enables the easy re-use/re-purposing of media assets on the web and within other programs or advertising campaigns,” said Nigel Booth, EVP, sales and marketing, IPV Ltd.

“Spectra’s BlackPearl plays a crucial role in the delivery of our solution. Broadcast footage that is delivered to Empress Media Asset Management is automatically archived on the BlackPearl. The BlackPearl is extremely user friendly and is an ideal product to archive broadcast data and to manage that across multiple locations,” said Chuck Buelow, VP, business development, Empress Media Asset Management, LLC .