Archiware and Square Box Systems Integrate Products
Archiware, which manufactures the multi-platform data backup solution PresSTORE 4.0, now offers a way to integrate with Square Box Systems' CatDV asset management system. PresSTORE P4 allows users to synchronize, backup and archive data on Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems, with four modules: Synchronize to clone data between different locations or from Xsan or SAN, Backup to save data from servers to disk or tap-based backup, Backup2Go to back-up desktop and laptop data to disk, and Archive to move data offline to disk or tape. CatDV is a logging tool, which ingests media from tape or disk, and enables subclipping and tagging; it also transcodes, automatically building offline proxies or web versions of online media; and, as a database, allows users to browse and search.
The integration of the two products is also a much-needed alternative to Apple's Final Cut Server, which the company has announced it will discontinue. "Customers were asking for this," says Szumlinski. In this workflow, the actual assets are written to tape with PresStore, and then can be stored anywhere from Iron Mountain to an on-site storage facility. On PresStore, preview proxies and metadata files are universally accessible online, transferred from CatDV to Archiware's PresSTORE; Castor, a simple and user-friendly script package, creates the seamless connectivity between the two products. "We're taking all the assets the user chooses and then have them accessible from within and without CatDV," he explains. "So if you the user decides ever not to use CatDV, their assets are now orphaned. They can look everything up independent of CatDV." Szumlinski notes that "NLEs and SANs are generally fairly transient," with no one product or version of a product lasting for more than five or ten years. "This is intended for long-term retention of the assets," he says. "PresSTORE makes sure that the assets are secure even if they're sitting on a shelf...but easily recoverable a few years down the road. If you know who the customer was or the project, you can search by metadata and find the clip before you go to the shelf and pick the tape."  The result is a solution for long-term retention of assets. "There is obviously value in these assets, but not enough to keep it online on spinning disks," notes Szumlinski. "PresStore makes sure it's secure even if it's sitting on a shelf." The Castor script package is an open source product that can be downloaded for free from the site. Szumlinski recommends that if users have any difficulty integrating it, to call their "favorite service integrator."
These kinds of connectivity tools to enhance media management and archiving are essential in today's constantly fluctuating digital landscape. In fact, Szumlinski notes the company is also tying in with other partners, including Canto, Xinet, and Building4Media, a Primestream company. The need for browser-based online products for moving metadata and proxies to long-term storage is rapidly growing. The explosion of media creation is concomitant with the filmmakers, producers and production companies that need to find ways to preserve their assets both for the short term and long-term. As Archiware's activity in this space shows, that often requires partnerships between products. No doubt we'll see more of these; for now and the future, the Archiware and Square Box Systems integration is very welcomed news.
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