IBC: Caringo Swarm 11 Object Storage Platform for On-Demand Access to Video Archives

Caringo, Inc. announced Swarm 11, an object storage platform with capabilities that advance digital video workflow agility.

Swarm 11 includes ‘Partial File Restore’ (video clipping), large file bulk upload in the content UI, file sharing, and backup to any Amazon S3 region. M&E and content-driven organizations that need to keep assets available can satisfy rapid access, HTTP-based delivery and protection requirements on a single scalable software storage platform using their hardware of choice.

Historically, to satisfy protection and access requirements, content-driven organizations would need to cobble together various data management and storage solutions, taking manual steps to move data to and from the archive. On-demand workflows are straining these processes, and the need for immediate access to files from the archive-directly over HTTP, to any device at any location-is critical.

Swarm 11 satisfies these on-demand workflow requirements by providing an agile archive that eliminates the need for offline infrastructure and manual file movement.

“We have talked to hundreds of content-driven organizations in the last few years, and they are all struggling with reducing the amount of time it takes to protect and deliver an asset internally or externally,” said Tony Barbagallo, CEO, Caringo. “With Swarm 11, we solve these issues by creating an on-demand archive where the content or content segment you want is easy to find and streamable internally or externally.“

Swarm 11 offers a set of features developed to reduce the amount of time and effort needed to restore, deliver and protect a video or video clip.

“Swarm 11 gives you a dynamic and fresh approach to addressing the challenges of ever-increasing video file sizes,” said Nicholas Smith, VP, technology, JB&A Distribution. “Caringo continues to bring user-friendly and easy-to-manage object storage to the M&E segment that seamlessly plugs into existing digital video workflows.“

Swarm management console

Swarm 11 enables to:

• Reduce Time to Last Byte (TTLB) with Partial File Restore (PFR): Large video and project files are often stored on tape that must be manually restored or striped over many tapes, delaying TTLB of requested data. With PFR, Swarm 11 can replace tape and allow clipping of a large video file for rapid turnaround of a specific portion of a video (or video highlight) directly from the archive layer for editing, internal sharing or streaming. Broad Codec support is available through the API for integration into Asset Management solutions with MP4-based clipping available directly from the Swarm Content Management interface.

• Speed time to ingest with up to 5x faster file upload from any browser: Uploading of large files to object storage often requires a gateway or software mount point that may not work on all workstations and files must be written to a spooler to ensure all file segments are transferred. Bulk upload speeds the process by writing data segments in parallel directly to the Swarm cluster without spooling content on a gateway, resulting in the ability to upload any number of large, multi-gigabyte files directly from any web browser.

• Simplify file sharing: To share large files, M&E professionals often rely on an external 3rd party service (e.g., Box or Vimeo), FTP servers, costly CDNs or shipping flash or HDDs. With Swarm File Sharing, authorized users can generate a streamable URL for any file from the Swarm Content Portal and then email, download or instant message the URL for secure internal or external sharing.

• Rapidly distribute offsite data protection with backup to S3: Backup any Swarm domain or an entire cluster to Amazon S3 or Amazon Glacier via S3 Lifecycle rules. Swarm can backup to S3-compliant storage targets or 3rd-party S3-compliant services. This is for organizations that want to keep a backup copy in an S3-compliant tape system or leverage an enterprise subscription with an S3-compliant cloud storage service.

For a limited time, the company is offering a buy-a-terabyte-get-a-terabyte-free promotion with the purchase of a 3-year maintenance and support agreement.