Reshaping Digital Preservation

Project Information

PreserviX

Grant agreement ID: 674422

DOI

10.3030/674422

Project closed

EC signature date 13 May 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 31 October 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

PIQL AS
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PreserviX (Reshaping Digital Preservation)

Reporting period: 2015-05-01 to 2015-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

"In today's world there is a massive data growth; - the amount of data is doubling every second year. For 5% - 10% of these data there is a clear need for secure long term preservation (i.e. beyond 25 years) – and guaranteed access in the future. This is the case for e.g. our cultural/historical/political heritage as well as administrative and scientific records in both public and private sector.
Some 6 years back we saw that there was no targeted technology, solutions or services to support these needs. At this time the ""Cloud"" was about to emerge and we realised that this would impose high risks to data security and privacy. Today we see that data are stolen and misused on a ""daily basis"" and data storage costs are escalating! That is why we set out to perform the necessary R&D to present an innovative holistic solution for secure, long term preservation of digital data.
The context for this project is the significant R&D within the field of secure data storage and digital preservation conducted in two Eurostars projects (E!4873, Archivator and E!7360 MiLoS) as well as two related R&D projects supported by the Norwegian Research Council (AStoR and ArchOptix). Within these projects a total investment of approximately € 17,5 million has been financed by Piql, the project partners and the funding organisations since mid-2009. A network of European partners (i.e. the technology/manufacturing partners in the above R&D projects) are ready to establish a supply chain with materials/technology/systems needed to create a value chain with clients globally to secure competitiveness and growth based on a disruptive European innovation.
Our vision is to reshape digital preservation! Our objectives are:
 To change the way the world is preserving valuable data for future use;
 To enable data owners to secure their data and protect them from manipulation, - securing privacy;
 To significantly reduce the cost of long term preservation - offering a cost saving of 60% - 80%;
 To liberate data owners from technology and vendor lock-in;
 To make a pan-European solution to become the world leader within a global, growing niche market;
The technologies used today are rather made for the needs of general data back-up and short term storage, and applied within digital preservation in the lack of a true preservation solution.
The above mentioned R&D work has led to the presentation of a unique technology (the ""Piql technology"") and integrated turnkey solution (the ""Piql system"") targeted specifically to solve issues and enable opportunities on the global arena within the area of data security and secure long term preservation of valuable data.


"

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The following work has been conducted as a part of the PreservIX project:
1. Market research
• Identify the competitive environment
• Feasibility of introducing the Piql system as a “Managed Service”
• Research on how preservation services are offered to the market and how they are priced
2. Business model development
3. “Go-to-market” strategy and business plan

Market research has been conducted on the global scale as well as on the national scale. We have looked at the following aspects:
Competitive environment: Digital Preservation sits at the very “back-end” of a data management workflow. Piql will play a role primarily within Preservation but can also be extended towards Archiving and Disaster Recovery for data that are static. We do not intent to play a role within traditional back-up and definitely not in general data storage.

The competitive environment is to some extent related to specific existing market players, but rather more related to specific existing technologies used within data storage. A handful of technologies is used by thousands or providers globally. As a part of our competitive environment analysis we have also looked at emerging technologies, since these can become potential competing technologies in the future.
Feasibility of introducing the Piql system as a “Managed Service”: Based on experience from development and sales of products for the global motion picture industry we know that it is a challenge to sell expensive technology. Clients tend to prefer operational expenses (OPEX) rather than capital expenses (CAPEX) and thus will prefer to acquire a managed service for their data storage needs. The idea is to introduce Piql Preservation Services through a global network of partners.
Research on how preservation services are offered to the market and how they are priced: Based on the idea of introducing a managed service we have looked into how such services are offered to the market today and how they are priced.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The clear user needs to be covered by the Piql solution is; data security (securing confidentiality and privacy), secure and guaranteed future access, significant cost saving for their digital preservation needs and low carbon footprint solution.
The data will be accessible in the future using open source software (contained on the preservation medium) and off the shelf technology available in the future. With Piql there is no vendor lock-in. With existing technologies Data Owners are locked in with the specific vendor since the strategy of the manufacturers (primarily Asian and some American) are to sell their goods and they need continued sales to survive. A key parameter for other providers of managed services today is to make the cost of changing the service provider high, - so that the data owners are actually not given any other option than to stay with the current service provider. Piql does not have this strategy. Revenue and profit shall be made through an innovative disruptive business model.
The Piql system is truly differentiated from both existing and emerging technologies and there is a unique opportunity to capture a growing global market and make an impact that ensures a strong presence by European technology and manufacturing companies on the global arena.
Piql is proposing a sustainable managed service where the profit is shared with the partner, and thus proposes growing revenue over time as the market grows – without compromising on the unique value-add properties for the data owners.
For Piql this is it!
What has been researched and developed during the last 5-6 years is the fundament for the existence and growth of the company. Our success has also great bearing on the success and growth of our stakeholders and partners within EU. Bringing this managed service based on the Piql technology and solution to the market will be the starting point of creating a new industry since there is no specific solution in the market that offers the same as we do.
Piql's shareholders, stakeholders and management is 100% aligned and dedicated to pursue this immense opportunity for creating growth and continued innovation – thus leading to job creation and business generation for our technology/manufacturing partners in Austria, Germany, UK and Sweden.

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