Articles in this issue

• De-duplication Solution Delivers the Best Medicine
• You Can Hold the Key to Security
• High Satisfaction Among Quantum Users
• Faster Data Processing Helps DigitalGlobe Achieve Revenue

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

• Application: Improving workflow to shorten the time needed to complete processing for geospatial images; reduction of management/reliability costs for multiple independent storage systems
• Operating System Environments: IRIX, Solaris, Windows, Linux
• Key Enabling Software: Quantum StorNext Data Management Software
• Disk Sotrage System: Sun/Hitachi Data Systems SE9990 storage platform, 20TB main image processing system, itachi Data Systems "Thunder" 9585 20TB FTP filesystem
• Tape Storage System: Quantum Scalar 10K tape library; 20 LTO drives; 2,700 cartridge capacity

DigitalGlobe®, a leader in the global commercial Earth imagery and geospatial information markets, uses Quantum®'s StorNext® data management software to help get its products to market faster. DigitalGlobe images are central to a wide range of industries, including energy exploration, regional planning, environmental monitoring, emergency response planning, intelligence, and 3D simulation. Its customers and partners include Google, as well as an international list of companies, government agencies, and news media.

IMAGES ARE KEY CORPORATE ASSET

DigitalGlobe's products are high resolution images, and an important part of its competitive advantage is its ability to turn raw data into usable images fast. The process starts with raw data collected by the Company's QuickBird satellite and transmitted to three ground stations in Alaska and Norway. Those stations send nearly 150GB of data per day over a wide-area network to the company's Longmont Colorado headquarters.

There, the raw data is processed in stages by up to dozen specialized applications to sharpen images, manage color and contrast, provide different spectral views, and assemble multiple images into a single mosaic, depending on customer needs. The finished images are then delivered to customers via FTP or by writing the data to CDs or DVDs. The production processing stage is the key to DigitalGlobe's business, and it was a huge bottleneck for the company.

THE CHALLENGE OF HANDLING LARGE FILES

"We work with large files – 120 to 400MB for each raw input file, with multiple raw files making up an image – and we process the data using very specialized applications that run on UNIX, Linux and Windows machines." explains John-David Childs, DigitalGlobe's IT Infrastructure Architect. "In our old system, using a 100Mbps LAN and local storage, we had to move and copy all the raw data multiple times before we could finish an imagery product. It was too slow to keep up and wouldn't let us grow our business. The faster processing time was a key component of our ability to win several major contracts, including Google, and meet our revenue targets."

When DigitalGlobe decided to upgrade their infrastructure to boost performance, they looked at all the technology available to provide file sharing in a heterogeneous computing environment. They selected Quantum's StorNext data management software for their main production environment where it creates a common 20TB cache of shared storage used to streamline workflow and increase production efficiency.

MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS SHARE
COMMON ASSET POOL

"We selected StorNext for our image processing servers because its file system interface lets multiple applications and operating systems share a common pool of digital assets, and it gives us the kind of high performance we need to handle large files and large data sets on a fast production schedule." Another key consideration in the selection of StorNext was its scalability: "Once our second satellite is launched, data volume will increase fivefold, and the eventual launch of a third satellite will further increase data volume", said Luc Trudel, Director of IT Operations at DigitalGlobe. "We also liked Quantum's stability as a company and their commitment to keep updating StorNext to support next-generation platforms." StorNext is the only SAN filesystem to support all of the operating systems in use at DigitalGlobe.

A FOUR-FOLD IMPROVEMENT IN PRODUCTIVITY

The result was an immediate gain in productivity. "With StorNext, jobs that used to take 10-12 hours now finish in less than three – we have seen four-fold improvement in the time it takes us to complete products."

DigitalGlobe is also leveraging StorNext to improve its system for delivering finished product to customers, saving time and money. "StorNext lets us set up our distribution management system so that our FTP servers and media writing tools can all work from a single, large data pool. The result is that products get out the door faster, and we spend less time managing the process", according to David Arlington, Senior Systems Engineer.

DigitalGlobe is evaluating StorNext's ability to manage files across tape and disk tiers. The current imaging system uses tape at two stages – raw data is copied to a Quantum Scalar® 10K tape library before image processing starts, and finished imagery products are moved to the library to get data off the production disk yet keep it easily available for later use. DigitalGlobe uses a proprietary program to manage movement of data to tape, but likes the fact that StorNext can provide data migration to tape as part of its own management features. "Currently, we have nearly a petabyte of data in our offline and nearline storage. As data capacity increases and our requirements change, it's nice to know that we have the option of letting one product manage both the disk and the tape environment."