HGST sees the shift to temporal data
July 2016 – Following the Creative Storage Conference, we had a chance to talk to Jeff Greenwald of HGST (now a part of Western Digital) about the shifting nature of content storage. The stage of data at rest is disappearing which is changing the design and use of tiering. The data that used to be at rest is now subject to policy based actions. The storage solutions used to be based on optimizing efficiencies in the workflow and the location of the user base. This method, has to be modified based on the content creation and VOD playback models needing a real-time reactive response to users both locally and located elsewhere on the internet.
The temporal nature of the tech now moves what used to be a temporary data archive into a data transformation state. The data at rest has now become the time for transcode, formatting, security, rights management, permissions, power optimization, redistribution closer to last mile delivery points, and calls from APIs. In this state, the data is not resting rather it is being transformed and prepared for use in content distribution. This dramatically changes the architecture of the storage solution for the data in this stage of the workflow.
In order to perform these transformations, there is a new reliance of edge analytics. These results drive the policy decisions that guide the access and distribution of the data. This new data workflow is a total end to end solution from capture to playout consumption for movies, broadcast, gaming, advertising, and CDNs in general. The end to end workflows are now being controlled by more real-time and live performance content. This content is primarily being originated by mobile devices including phones, action cameras, surveillance, and new 360degree capture. The commonality in these devices is at the consumer level, there is an assumption of infinite bandwidth availability. The storage architecture has to be created to support this assumption when both a repository and a delivery source, under the reality of limited bandwidth on networks.
