Copan and SGL Partnering

COPAN Systems , in persistent data storage solutions, and Software Generation Limited (SGL), provider of content archive and storage management software for the media and entertainment industry, announced a new product and technology partnership. The agreement combines COPAN’s Persistent Data Storage Platform with SGL FlashNet, an open system for accessing archived digital broadcast content, and gives broadcasters a highly scalable, cost-effective and energy-efficient alternative for storing, protecting and accessing their digital content. The announcement was made at the NAB 2009 event taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The growth in high definition (HD) programming content is driving significantly higher storage and archiving demands within the media and entertainment industry. According to a recent IMS Research The Worldwide Market for High-Definition TV Equipment & Services study, the penetration of HDTV worldwide will grow almost six fold – from 45 million to 255 million households – between 2008 and 2013. This growth will fuel the demand for new HD programming content which is already storage-heavy and will continue to increase in size. In addition to storing new content, broadcasters want to preserve and resurrect the programming content they already have and make it HD ready, adding to their already strained archiving and storage infrastructure.

“SGL is focused on providing the media and entertainment industry with the best content archiving and storage management solutions available for their broadcasting systems,” said Howard Twine, Product Manager for Software Generation Limited. “As the need for archiving grows due to increased demand for HDTV content, broadcasters need a highly scalable, energy-efficient storage capability that does not sacrifice content access and infrastructure flexibility. COPAN is specifically designed to manage these types of data storage requirements while significantly reducing power consumption and cooling costs. Traditional storage systems just can’t support these new needs in the same way.”

Data centers and data storage are prime targets for cost and energy reductions. According to InfoPro, a leading technology research analyst firm, 40 percent of power consumption in today’s data center is utilized for storage. COPAN Systems specializes in storing fixed, long-term, infrequently-accessed data, also known as Persistent Data. This accounts for more than 75 percent of all data currently under management. COPAN’s Enterprise MAID technology platform is purpose-built for the cost-effective and energy-efficient storage of persistent data and it delivers significant user benefits. Users can save up to 85 percent on power and 70 percent on data center space with COPAN versus traditional storage systems.

“Data center energy consumption and its environmental impact are major concerns for many industries and especially in media and entertainment, where storage demands are growing dramatically with the advances in broadcast technologies,” said co-founder and vice president of COPAN’s Federal Division. “Together, COPAN and SGL can provide huge storage and energy efficiencies without sacrificing any of the flexibility broadcasters need to access their digital media and entertainment content.”