USC Shoah Foundation Institute Accelerates Project to Preserve Genocide Testimonies
 
 

USC Shoah Foundation Institute Accelerates Project to Preserve Genocide Testimonies

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Established by Steven Spielberg to collect and preserve testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust, the University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation Institute maintains one of the largest video digital libraries in the world with nearly 52,000 video testimonies in 32 languages from 56 countries. The institute, which is part of USC’s College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, seeks to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry through the educational use of its visual history testimonies from the Holocaust and other genocides.

Now more than 80% complete, the institute’s Holocaust preservation project began in 2008 with Oracle’s StorageTek SL8500 modular library system and StorageTek T10000B tape drives as the cornerstone of its architecture. The institute uses the Oracle solution, which also includes Sun Fire X4270 M2 servers with Oracle Solaris and Oracle disk arrays, to digitize approximately 80 terabytes of data per month. With Oracle, the institute is on track to finish digitization ahead of schedule in 2012.

As part of its process, the institute upgrades its tape technology and migrates its data on tape every three years to ensure these priceless testimonials are maintained on the best possible technology. The frequent migrations have minimized the institute’s storage footprint. With the move to Oracle’s latest generation tape drives, the institute has increased its maximum tape storage capacity over five times, with a currently capacity of up to 55 petabytes, and saved an estimated 35% over the cost of staying on existing technology.

Additionally, the institute can take advantage of the StorageTek Maximum Capacity feature, which accommodates up to 5.5 terabytes per tape, and, using the StorageTek Accelerator features, maximize total data throughput by reducing tape starts and stops, which has helped accelerate project completion. Further, by using StorageTek T10000C tape drives in conjunction with Oracle’s Sun Storage Archive Manager software and Oracle Solaris, the institute can checksum its files any time that it moves them to ensure data integrity.

Thanks to the significant increase in storage capacity, the institute can now begin digitizing and preserving testimonies from the Armenian and Rwandan genocides.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute

  • “From the beginning, Oracle technology has been critical to our mission to preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses, and provide fast and easy access to these invaluable assets. Oracle’s StorageTek T10000C tape technology has enabled us to ensure 100% bit accuracy, archive five times more data in our existing footprint, and reduce the cost of maintaining these oral histories for generations to come.” – Sam Gustman, Chief Technology Officer, USC Shoah Foundation Institute

  • Preserve and store high-quality digital copies of the institute’s visual history archive in a cost-effective format that offers the ease-of-access and scalability needed to support future educational initiatives
  • Upgrade and increase overall storage system and server capabilities to meet forthcoming needs as new testimonies from other genocides are added to the library
  • Implement a system that enables faster access to original videotapes, improving employee productivity and giving staff more time to focus on educational efforts

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Deployed a StorageTek SL8500 modular library system and StorageTek T10000B tape drives to create an economical and scalable solution for preserving the archive, and later added StorageTek T10000C tape drives to further expand storage capacity by five times to a current maximum of 55 petabytes
  • Embarked on a five-year strategy to digitize testimony files and store them on StorageTek solutions—a process that is now 80% complete and set to finish in 2013
  • Saved US$6 million in videotape replicating and replacement processes, realizing an instant return on investment
  • Gained the scalability needed to archive 100,000 new testimonies on the system without increasing the storage footprint of 500 square feet
  • Saved an estimated 35% over the cost of staying on existing technology by moving to StorageTek T10000C tape drives
  • Helped accelerate project completion with StorageTek Accelerator features, which maximize total data throughput by reducing tape starts and stops
  • Improved staff productivity by decreasing the time needed to access testimonies from two weeks to one hour
  • Gained the ability to perform a checksum procedure on files at any time the institute moves them to ensure data integrity by deploying StorageTek T10000C tape drives in conjunction with Oracle’s Sun Storage Archive Manager and Oracle Solaris
  • Supported future plans to digitize and preserve testimonies from the Armenian and Rwandan genocides

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