Towards SIRF

Abstract

Many organizations are now required to preserve and maintain access to large volumes of digital content for dozens of years. There is a need for preservation systems and processes to support such long-term retention requirements and enable the usability of those digital objects in the distant future, regardless of changes in technologies and designated communities. A key component in such preservation systems is the storage subsystem where the digital objects are located for most of their lifecycle. We describe SIRF (Self-contained Information Retention Format) -a logical storage container format specialized for long term retention. SIRF includes a set of digital preservation objects and a catalog with metadata related to the entire contents of the container as well as to the individual objects and their interrelationship. SIRF is being developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) 1 with the intention of creating a standardized vendor-neutral storage format that will be interpretable by future preservation systems and that will simplify and reduce the costs of digital preservation.

Towards Migration-Free "Just-in-Case" Data Archival for Future Cloud Data Lakes Using Synthetic DNA

“…One possibility is to store metadata and data separately, with the former on tape and latter on DNA. However, decades of experience from the digital preservation domain argues against this separation and favors self-contained information storage that physically and logically groups together related data and metadata [32]. Thus, it is necessary to develop tiered storage strategies for passive archival of data and metadata.…”

Investigating the Needs, Capabilities and Decision Making Mechanisms in Digital Preservation

“…Acknowledging the extrinsic motivations of firms to preserve information, Chen (2001, p. 25) argues that private companies facing discovery orders for their digital information in connection with lawsuits often find that recovering this information costs more than the computer system itself. Other authors support this argument and contend that legal and regulatory mandates oblige firms to keep data, such as e-mails, medical records, aircraft designs, electronic-commerce transac-tions or documentations of drug trials, over decades (Berman, 2008;Rabinovici-Cohen et al, 2011;Rothenberg, 1999). SOX or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are considered major constituents driving DP needs in firms (Baker et al, 2006;Storer, Greenan, & Miller, 2006).…”

“…SOX or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are considered major constituents driving DP needs in firms (Baker et al, 2006;Storer, Greenan, & Miller, 2006). Focusing on the intrinsically motivated factors, we find arguments referring to the need to preserve information due to business value or contractual responsibility (Lorie, 2002;Lubell, Subrahmanian, Regli, & Sudarsan, 2007;Porekar, Saljic, Klobucar, & Jerman-Blazic, 2009), the retention of intellectual property (IP) rights (Rabinovici-Cohen, et al, 2011) and the need to support understanding of products including design, manufacture and reuse possibilities (Regli, et al, 2009).…”

“…Analyzing existing research on DP capabilities, we found a set of articles elaborating on the various DP strategies such as migration, emulation or encapsulation including discussions about specific pros and cons (Lee, et al, 2002;Muir, 2001;Waugh, Wilkinson, Hills, & Dell'Oro, 2000). Other existing research on DP capabilities examined topics such as long-term storage systems (Antunes, Barateiro, Cabral, Borbinha, & Rodrigues, 2009;, preservation software prototypes (Kuo & Hsiao, 2008;Lorie, 2002;Rajasekar et al, 2006;Rechert, von Suchodoletz, & Welte, 2010), preservation file formats (Rabinovici-Cohen, et al, 2011;Waugh, et al, 2000), DP planning systems (Becker, Kulovits, Rauber, & Hofman, 2008) or DP architectures (Ferreira, Baptista, & Ramalho, 2007;Gladney, 2004). However, empirical evidence about the adoption of DP solutions and strategies in a firm is lacking.…”

“…First, the case organization should either operate in a strongly regulated industry sector or at least be affected by the SOX regulation. Second, it should be profit-oriented and, third, it should operate in various countries and thus be affected by different regulatory mandates Rabinovici-Cohen, et al, 2011).…”