Imperial War Museums in England Preserve Wartime Data

Spectra Logic Corporation announced a data archiving solution at the Imperial War Museums (IWM) across England, including IWM London, IWM North, IWM Duxford, Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast.

Replacing a legacy archive system, the Spectra deployment is intended to more reliably store and manage critical data pertaining to wartime history. The deployment consists of a Spectra BlackPearl converged storage system, including a Spectra ArcticBlue disk solution and two Spectra T950 tape libraries.

Prior to implementing a Spectra Logic archive, the museums solely utilized a disk-based solution to preserve its digital assets. However, it lacked the durability and scalability that was required to safeguard a growing repository of invaluable data, was difficult to manage across the five sites, and proved to be expensive. For these reasons, the IT team, led by Ian Crawford, CIO, Imperial War Museums, sought to introduce a solution that would provide the museums with reliable, flexible and cost-effective storage, capable of accommodating large data sets.

“After considering several tape vendors, Spectra Logic stood out on all counts, offering unmatched longevity, reliability and capacity, as well as exceptional customer support services,” said Crawford. “Following the deployment, we can reliably store large .zip files of our DPX data using BlackPearl, safe in knowing that one copy of our data is stored on disk, and two copies on differing tape technologies.“

The IWM IT team selected two T950 tape libraries, one with LTO-5 media and drives, the other with IBM TS1150 tape technology, a BlackPearl and a ArcticBlue to address the museums’ archiving needs. The T950s provide the capacity, reliability and affordability IWM needed, while the BlackPearl and ArcticBlue appliances allow the team to store its assets on multiple storage mediums, ensuring optimal digital preservation and protection for many years to come.

“The Spectra team understood that Imperial War Museums had several key criteria to meet when looking for a new storage solution, which is why we opted for a hybrid storage ecosystem,” said Brian Grainger, CSO, Spectra Logic. “By storing multiple copies of the museums’ data on genetically diverse media, IWM can rest easy knowing that their assets are safe and secure.“