Digital Preservation

Preservation

Over time, digital files can lose bits, become corrupted or unreadable, or disappear entirely. We maintain best-in-class operational procedures to continuously monitor bits and ensure long-term protection of files in accordance with the preservation standards established by the Library of Congress.

The Digital Repository maintains file integrity by enforcing strict technical and operational standards for file protection and by utilizing superior systems that guarantee bit protection. We additionally work with multiple mirrored locations to create file duplicates and provide recovery in the event of a disaster.

Storage

Affordable On-Site Storage: We have high-speed, high-performance disk storage and low-demand tape storage for both short-term and long-term storage with access available for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux platforms.

Flexible Cloud Storage: Through an innovative partnership with EMC, we have highly secure and encrypted storage options that are mirrored between multiple locations. We offer iSCSI, CIFS, NFS, HTTPS, and many other protocols for rapid file retrieval and interaction with content. We accept archive files from Symantec Net-Backup, Backup Exec, and Comm Vault.

Dell Cloud Services Provider: We offer multiple tiers of storage solutions to address our clients’ data management, backup, archive, geo-spread multi-site, and disaster recovery needs.

Isilon: Industry-leading Scale-out NAS with unmatched agility and performance for unstructured data. 

• Data Protection built directly into the architecture (N+1 Protection)
• The leading replication tool on the market Sync IQ for disaster recovery
• Integration with Aspera

Dell Data Protection Suite: Best-in-class data protection tools provide you choices and flexibility in protecting critical data.

• Flexibility to deploy across both physical and virtual environments
• Unmatched speed and de-duplication rates when paired with Data Domain
• VMware and diverse application integration to ensure interoperability and ease
• Covers all data protection functions including replication, snapshots, backups, and archive

Access

The Digital Repository is anchored by a strong technical backbone that is powered by one of the nation’s most powerful academic supercomputers.

Global High-Speed File Access: Through our connection to over 100 high-performance research and education networks worldwide, including high-speed Internet2 and National LambdaRail interconnections, files can be efficiently uploaded or downloaded, streamed in real time, and recovered in the event of a disaster.

Transfer Files from Anywhere: Collections of files in all sizes can safely be transferred to the Digital Repository from anywhere in the world. Once in the system, they are able to be retrieved as an entire collection or broken down into smaller elements based on keyword tagging and similar added metadata.

Secure Distribution Networks: Our content distribution network (CDN) makes your digital collection or data sets available and delivers them securely and reliably. For specialized remote access to large data files, we have the disk storage space required and direct access to large-scale, high-performance distributed computing networks.

Controlled Access: Access to files and collections can be strictly controlled broadly or at the user level. We can additionally implement a schedule for routine file removal and destruction.

Security

• Our data center is housed in a secure, well-guarded facility with a two-stage fire suppression system and backup power to safeguard against utility interruptions.
• USC’s Information Technology Services (ITS) maintains an information security group that constantly monitors all systems against potential outside threats.
• USC’s ITS has established robust policies for firewalls, vulnerability scanning, and other critical efforts to ensure optimal security.