1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Media Prima Berhad (Media Prima) was on the lookout for a custom built and scalable solution for archiving and post-production workflows. This venture was awarded to IPSB Technology in 2016. In collaboration with Storage as a Service (STaas) partners, IPSB Technology uses its solution known as Enterprise Storage Archiving System (ESAS) . ESAS ensures easy access to archived data needed for its extensive data archiving & post production functions.
Read the article by our Mardhiah Nasir, Executive Director and Vice President of Sales, IPSB Technology as she talks about ESAS “Enterprise Storage Archiving System (ESAS) – why STaaS is the way to go” featured in the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Technical Review – Issue No 285 January-March 2021.
Enterprise Storage Archiving System (ESAS)
IPSB Technology partnered with DELL for its DELL EMC Isilon Hardware; Dalet – Software for Media Asset Management; ARISTA – Networking Component Software, MXF Server – Production Asset Management and XSCALAR – IPSB Technology’s very own White Box Server. In utilizing DELL EMC , IPSB was able to deploy the hardware in managing Petabytes Centralized Storage for Hybrid Cloud solution.
2.0 THE CHALLENGE
Established in 2003, Media Prima Berhad (Media Prima) has grown exponentially as Malaysia’s leading, fully-integrated media company. Transitioning from a traditional based media business , evolving into a mix of conventional and digital media (new media). During its expansion years, Media Prima was faced with challenges in its archiving and post production department. They were also challenged with the growing CapEx cost in managing its data.
Archiving
The existing architecture consists of two storage repositories. The use of LTO and Digi Beta tapes caused a complicated retrieval and restoring process for all the archived materials. They require manually inserting tape via LTO tape using a robotic tape library. File ingestion and processing period takes a long time because of this architecture . File transfers between the two storage systems require an adequate network to cater to the growth of the media assets.
For 29 years Media Prima has built up a huge library of content. This includes video , audio and images from TV Production, Radio, Print and Digital Media. Media Prima has been through various transformations. This is due to fast progressions in technology combined with unlimited opportunities within broadcast and publishing. It has become a key player that remains strong in the market by constructing disruptive business models.
Media Prima needed to address their issues as they grew bigger. Their growth means it will consume more infrastructure capacity and cost more to manage.
Post Production:
Media Prima’s Post Production existing architecture was outdated. It did not cater to future high-resolution video editing format and possible incremental number of in-house production. This demands a scalable and high throughput production server. The Production Asset Management (PAM) also requires a collaborative workflow infrastructure. This will In turn allow integration with solutions that verifies with the right/permitted file format that specifies multiple business units and layers of approval process.
IPSB has considered a few considerations in dealing with Media Prima’s challenges . Media Prima, being a national broadcaster, runs 24/7 which limits the downtime possibilities. The existing media legacy that has been since 1984, analogs format that consists of 150,000 assets. This would cause a longer migration time. Media Prima could not cater to the growing and expanding workload based on the existing infrastructure. It requires a better retrieval and restoring time for the archived material. Improving Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) was crucial. Media Prima needed a restructure, in order to expand and stay current in the Media Entertainment industry. IPSB was brought in to provide a solution for Media Prima in restructuring their architecture.
3.0 THE SOLUTION
Media Prima expects IPSB to come up with a solution in achieving specific objectives from two main functions within the organisation. Through the Enterprise Storage as a Service (STaaS), IPSB combined Managed Services with ESAS to achieve a commendable archiving system. ESAS had also solved the post production issues.
Storage Architecture
The first initiative was in consolidating the storage architecture into ESAS . This resulted in it becoming the centralized repository for Media Prima Broadcast environments. This simplified architecture involved migrating 150,000 media assets from the LTO Tape archive into ESAS. Resulting in smooth workflow for asset retrieval and minimized storage in having the centralized storage architecture.
Scalable Storage
The next order of business was in finding scalable petabytes storage with very high data availability. DELL EMC Isilon’s highly efficient and resilient active archiving storage provides long-term data retention for Media Prima’s large-scale data archives. This ESAS architecture had chosen the A2000 & HD400 for the Deep Archive and X410 for its high performance feature. This made possible the architecture to keep pace with growing archive needs with the proven scale-out architecture of Isilon. Isilon also enables safe data archiving with its choice of enterprise-grade data protection and security options.
Address Post production Needs
Media Prima’s own in-house production function needed its own archive system to be equipped in handling post production needs. The requirement was a scalable and high thorough-put production server. This was crucial to cater for future high-resolution video editing format in lieu of the possible incremental number of in-house production. To fulfill this requirement, DELL Isilon’s X410 was provisioned with MXFserver. The server was used to utilise the Production Asset Management system (PAM), coupled with the Dalet software with their Media Asset Management (MAM) capabilities. These software complemented ESAS for integration of solutions. It verifies the right/permitted file format and specifications with multiple business units and layers of approval process. In short, a MAM and PAM system, intended specifically for production use. This made it easier and more efficient for Media Prima to ingest, produce, store and broadcast their digital media assets.
4.0 CONCLUSION
ESAS for Media Prima is a flexible and scalable provision for unlimited growth. The ability to increase and decrease storage capacity on demand, as well as eliminate silos and consolidate their workloads enhances Media Prima’s effectiveness. ESAS managed services include primary data storage,near-line storage, collaboration, file sharing, archiving, backup and disaster recovery. Paired with cost effective and industrialized SaaS centralised storage solution, it is a perfect fit for high performance workload, media digitisation, content migration and data orchestrator. With ESAS, we’ve managed almost petabytes of data daily for Media Prima, significantly reducing their operating cost with the pay-as-you-go pricing.
Highlights
- ESAS allows multiple departments to collaborate on work to reach objectives in the shortest time possible ;starting with only 10 workflows which is about 5 %. Currently 90% Media Prima workflow is using ESAS.
- With the flexibility of infrastructure, customer be able to venture into new business and focus on generating revenue via latest tech and cost optimization
- DELL Isilon’s Scale Out data storage solutions are powerful with simplified managing capabilities which allowed IPSB to manage and keep up with each challenge set that was identified earlier on by tackling each objective at its core.
- IPSB Technology’s challenge in applying its ESAS managed services to Media Prima’s needs was in having an easily adaptable and expandable archiving solution, one of which DELL EMC ISILON provides in the form of the A200, HF400 and X410.
5.0 TESTIMONIALS
“The ESAS (Enterprise Storage Archiving System) enables Media Prima to have a high availability centralized video content storage system as opposed to fragmented storage arrays of video storage servers. Eliminating complex video workflows to a more simplified architecture approach provides us with the visibility and agility to continuously over-deliver our video content production’s demands for fast and always available storage systems.
Cost optimization can be delivered through a Pay-Per-Use storage model, avoiding storage over-provisioning and at the same time delivers storage on demand.” – Mohamad Rezwan Khalil Azmi, Chief Technology Officer, Media Prima Berhad
“Leveraging on IPSB Technology Managed Services ESAS enable us to centralized content storage opposed to the previously fragmented arrays of video servers” – Zuraidah Atan ex-Chief Technology Officer, Media Prima Berhad
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IPSB Technology AND DELL EMC
IPSB’s collaboration with DELL dates back to 2008, with a number of projects with PETRONAS, Malaysia’s premier and fully integrated oil and gas company. This relationship has extended more than a decade, further familiarizing IPSB in DELL’s various storage solutions with choices that range from all-flash, hybrid and archive NAS platforms.
IPSB Technology expertise with Dell EMC Isilon ranging from deployment for Broadcast, Oil & Gas with Petronas, Malaysian Genome Institute, government agencies and many more users that require a scale out and agile storage infrastructure.
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