May 2, 2006

Internet2 Presents SDSC Researcher and Team Inaugural IDEA Award
Award Recognizes Innovative Advanced Network Applications in the
Research and Education Community

By Ashley Wood

Internet2 honored the work done by the SDSC (San Diego Supercomputer Center) Storage Resource Broker (SRB) team led by researcher Reagan Moore, in collaboration with Robert Chadduck from NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) and Joseph JaJa from the University of Maryland, at the First Annual Internet2 Driving Exemplary Applications (IDEA) Award program held at the 2006 Spring Member Meeting in Washington, DC in April. The award recognizes leading innovators who have created and deployed advanced network applications that have utilized advanced networking to enable transformational progress in research, teaching and learning, and promise to increase the impact of next-generation networks around the world.

Moore and team were recognized for their collaborative work creating and implementing a research prototype persistent archive based on SRB technology called the “Transcontinental Persistent Archives Prototype.” This persistent archive application is designed to safeguard, preserve and provide access to the Nation’s critical electronic records.

"Persistent archives form the foundation for new discovery, and for preserving our scientific and cultural heritage," said Fran Berman, Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, "We are honored by Internet2's Award for the innovative Persistent Archives Testbed Project and share the excitement of our project partners at the National Archives and Records Administration and the University of Maryland."

Three SRB data grids were deployed – one at NARA, one at the University of Maryland, and one at SDSC. Then, the three data grids were federated to enable replication of records between the systems. SDSC developed the SRB technology on which the preservation environment is based, collaborated with NARA and U Maryland on the installation of the technology, and supported the preservation of NARA digital holdings.

"A major requirement behind the creation of a preservation environment is the ability to manage properties of records independently of the choice of storage technology. This is referred to as infrastructure independence, and enables the management of technology evolution,” explains Moore. “The NARA research prototype persistent archive is a demonstration that data grid technology provides the essential data management functions, including not only the ability to incorporate new types of storage systems, but also the ability to replicate data across multiple sites to mitigate risk of data loss. The strong support provided by NARA has been essential in the development of the SRB data grid and its use as a preservation environment. The recognition by Internet2 of this advance in preservation technology will help promote development of distributed preservation environments for additional federal agencies."

“The Transcontinental Persistent Archives Prototype represents advanced collaborative research. This technology demonstrates how shared knowledge can be managed and distributed across multiple institutions and platforms. The prototype is the Nation's window onto the electronic records archives of the future,” said Robert Chadduck, Director of Research, Electronic Records Archives (ERA) Program National Archives and Records Administration.

IDEA award winners represent applied advanced networking at its best and represent a vast range of disciplines, from advanced radio astronomy to virtual master music classes and remote global collaboration. The four winning submissions were chosen among distinguished nominations and were judged on the depth of their positive impact on their primary users, the technical merit of the application, and the likelihood the application would be broadly adopted by its full natural community of potential users.

“The Internet2 IDEA awards recognize leaders of the Internet2 community who have pushed the envelope of technology to enable a broad spectrum of the research and education community to learn, collaborate, and advance their missions in new and innovative ways,” said David Lassner, CIO for the University of Hawaii and Chair of the Internet2 Applications Strategy Council. “In doing so, these applications and their lead collaborators serve as a model for the entire community by driving innovation to the edge creating new opportunities that just five years ago could not have been imagined.”

SDSC staff members who contributed to the development of this project include: Michael Wan, Arcot Rajasekar, Wayne Schroeder, Richard Marciano, Antoine de Torcy, Sheau-Yen Chen, George Kremenek, Lucas Gilbert, Charles Cowart and Bing Zhu. Other collaborators on the current project include Stanford Linear Accelerator, collaborating on a demonstration of the submission of federal records to NARA using a producer-archive submission pipeline developed by University of Maryland; and Georgia Tech, collaborating on the development of preservation services that can be executed on top of the SRB data grid.

For more information about the winning program, log on to http://www.internet2.edu/idea/2006/transcontinental_persistent_archives_prototypes.html and for more information about the IDEA Awards, log on to http://www.internet2.edu/idea.

Media Contacts: Ashley Wood