On the Radar: Tessella Creating an archive for the long-term preservation of digital content Reference Code: IT014-002789 Publication Date: 04 Sep 2013 Author: Sue Clarke SUMMARY Catalyst Ensuring that digital content remains accessible over many decades is a problem that vendors have been attempting to address for several years, and no one has yet provided a definitive solution. Tessella, however, is addressing the problem of long-term digital preservation through its digital archiving technology. Its flagship product, Safety Deposit Box (SDB), is an innovative offering that enables organizations to store and preserve digital information, and more importantly, to access the information even after several decades. Tessella has now taken the technology to the cloud with Preservica, a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based version of the product. Key messages Preservica, a cloud-based archive for long-term digital preservation, converts content to a new format each time its current format is about to become obsolete Tessella has developed a dedicated website for Preservica, with a number of business tools to help organizations build the business case for Preservica and to determine which content should be stored in the archive Preservica is available to UK public sector customers through the G-Cloud CloudStore, which simplifies the procurement process Although there is a search capability that will enable organizations to discover and retrieve content, Preservica needs to integrate with e-discovery tools to help speed up and simplify the process for organizations that need to address e-discovery requests. Ovum view Tessella's SDB is well-established and is an ideal solution for enterprises with very large archives that favor an on-premise solution. Tessella intends to put many of its resources into developing Preservica, which will suit smaller archives such as those of libraries, other public bodies, and mid-sized organizations, which are more likely to choose a cloud deployment model. However, Ovum believes Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 1
there is still a large potential market for SDB, and that the company should develop the two products in tandem. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENTERPRISES Why put Preservica on your radar? Organizations of all sizes are coming under the remit of regulations and legislation that demand the retention of content. While many of these retention periods are relatively short, retention periods for some types of content can be very long, potentially in excess of 100 years, and some content has to be retained forever. This creates problems of accessibility and readability when the application that created and rendered the content and its file format has become obsolete. Vendors have been looking for ways to address this problem for many years, and the most common solution is to save content in a format designed for long-term retention such as PDF/A, but there is no guarantee that this will not be superseded in the future, and there is currently no single format that will suit all types of content.. Preservica takes a different approach and solves the problem by retaining factual information on file formats and the software that can read and write them, as well as details on the risk of keeping content in a particular file format and how it can be migrated. When a file format is coming to the end of its life, migration tools within the product transform content from the old format to a new format. This migration is also validated to ensure that the new content is still authentic. This ensures that content remains accessible and readable at all times. HIGHLIGHTS Background Tessella was founded in 1980 as a provider of science-powered technology and consulting services. Most of its staff come from a scientific background, which enables it to provide solutions across a wide range of industries. Examples of its work include developing smarter drug trials, preserving digital content, minimizing risk in oil and gas exploration, controlling the orbit and altitude of satellites, and researching fusion energy. The stated mission of Tessella is "to add value to clients operations through the application of IT and consulting services based on scientific methods and rigorous quality procedures". This approach has helped the company to form long-term client relationships with a high level of repeat business. The company offers end-to-end services that combine consultancy to identify business opportunities, with the development, deployment, and ongoing support of an IT solution. The SDB product was originally developed for leading national memory institutions (such as National UK Archives), and uses the open archival information system (OAIS) standard, which ensures that the technology conforms to international standards, an important point for long-term digital preservation. Tessella is headquartered in Abingdon, Oxfordshire in the UK, with offices in Newton, Massachusetts and Washington DC in the US. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 2
Current position Digital preservation is an important area for Tessella. Its SDB solution provides a scalable digital preservation system for content that cannot be deleted or changed. The company claims that it can manage information in any format, including documents, spreadsheets, multimedia, raw experimental data, emails, and design information. As well as storing the content, SDB also maintains metadata and security information. As content is ingested, metadata is automatically extracted, the integrity is checked, the format is identified and validated, and it is virus-checked, something that most archiving solutions do not do. The SDB archive is constantly crawled to ensure the integrity of the content at the bit level. In addition, content can be searched and retrieved. The SDB framework can be integrated with document management, email, design workflows, and other operational systems, and Ovum believes that there is a good market opportunity for Tessella to sell the product to enterprise content management vendors under OEM or white label agreements. Preservica is a new initiative for Tessella, which takes the SDB technology and offers it through the cloud using Amazon Web Services. The company has a dedicated website, www.preservica.com, where information on the service can be found along with educational resources such as tutorials, webinars, white papers, and videos, which explain the importance of long-term retention and the issues of being able to access content in many years' time. There are also a number of business tools that help organizations to understand what their archiving needs are and what the consequences are of losing different types of digital content. There is a risk assessment that helps organizations understand the risks involved in losing specific types of content, to help them decide what categories of content should be stored in Preservica. Future plans for Preservica include integration with other systems such as library indexing solutions, archival management systems, and a range of content management systems. Lbraries and national archives allow the general public to access information in their archives, and, subject to permissions and access rights, Tessella plans to facilitate public access to content stored in Preservica. The company is also considering offering Amazon's Glacier service as a more economical option for storing archived content. This would allow organizations to select the type of storage they want for their content depending on the frequency with which it would need to be accessed, or the likelihood of it needing to be "discovered", enabling users to mix-and-match the storage services used. This allows Tessella to offer different pricing models according to the volume of storage used in each cloud service. The company is also planning to provide improved search capabilities with the ability to create datasets, which will help organizations with e-discovery requests. However, to really enhance the discovery capabilities, Ovum believes that Preservica should integrate with specialist e-discovery tools. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 3
DATA SHEET Key facts Table 1: Data sheet: Tessella Preservica Product name Preservica Product classification Content management Version number 4.4 Release date 2013 Industries covered All Geographies covered All Relevant company sizes Any Licensing options SaaS URL www.preservica.com Route(s) to market Direct and channel Company headquarters Abingdon, UK Number of employees 24 in archiving division Source: Ovum APPENDIX "On the Radar" "On the Radar" is part of Ovum's series of research notes that highlights up-and-coming vendors that bring innovative ideas, products, or business models to their markets. Although "On the Radar" vendors are not always ready for prime time, they bear watching for their impact on markets and could be suitable for certain enterprise and public sector IT organizations. Further reading Author The Role of Records Management and Archiving in Compliance, IT014-002687, January 2013 Disclaimer Sue Clarke, Senior Analyst sue.clarke@ovum.com All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Ovum (an Informa business). The facts of this report are believed to be correct at the time of publication but cannot be guaranteed. Please note that the findings, conclusions, and recommendations that Ovum delivers will be based on information gathered in good faith from both primary and secondary sources, whose accuracy we are Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 4
not always in a position to guarantee. As such Ovum can accept no liability whatever for actions taken based on any information that may subsequently prove to be incorrect. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 5