System and method for immutably cataloging and storing electronic assets in a large scale computer system

Abstract

Systems and/or methods for storing and/or retrieving assets in connection with an extremely large scale computer storage system are provided. An asset catalog may comprise a plurality of asset catalog entries stored according to at least one schema and corresponding to a plurality of assets. A storage architecture may be capable of storing the plurality of assets, with the storage architecture comprising a storage locator and a federator. An item identification scheme may be capable of providing identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries stored in the asset catalog in the storage architecture. The computer storage system may be scalable essentially without limitation while maintaining asset storage and retrieval flexibility and substantially obsolescence-proof survivability of assets.

1 . An extremely large scale computer storage system, comprising: 
 an asset catalog comprising a plurality of asset catalog entries stored according to at least one schema and corresponding to a plurality of assets;    a storage architecture capable of storing the plurality of assets, the storage architecture comprising a storage locator and a federator; and    an item identification scheme capable of providing identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries stored in the asset catalog in the storage architecture,    wherein the computer storage system is scalable essentially without limitation while maintaining asset storage and retrieval flexibility and substantially obsolescence-proof survivability of assets.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least one storage location.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a search and access interface configured to cooperate with one or more search engines to enable indexing of and/or searching for at least one of the asset catalog entries and/or at least one corresponding asset.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one storage location is arranged such that the asset catalog entries are stored near to their corresponding persisted assets.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least two storage locations, and wherein at least some of the asset catalog also is stored in a second storage location, the second storage location being a higher performance storage tier.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least two storage locations, a first storage location for storing aggregate-level assets catalog entries and a second storage location for storing item-level assets catalog entries.  
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one storage location comprises one or more of: a file system, a relational database, and an object database.  
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one storage location includes a plurality of storage units and/or sets of storage units, each said asset and asset catalog entry being stored in at least one storage unit or storage unit set.  
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein each asset catalog entry is an XML document.  
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least two storage locations each storing the same asset catalog entries or assets to provide redundancy for performance, availability, and/or recoverability for the assets and/or asset catalog entries.  
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the storage architecture cooperates to map assets and/or asset catalog entries to at least one storage location of the storage architecture based at least in part on metadata associated with the respective asset or asset catalog entry and/or configurable mapping rules and/or persisted storage patterns.  
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 3 , further comprising a clustering subroutine and/or a caching subroutine in cooperation with the storage architecture to improve the performance of the search and access interface.  
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the federator is capable of transparently accessing a plurality of storage locations of the storage architecture irrespective of a storage implementation associated with a particular storage location.  
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the computer storage system is independent and available at each of a plurality of geographic locations, the plurality of locations including at least some portions of the asset catalog and assets.  
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the computer storage system at each geographic location is available to each said location through cooperation among computer storage system at each said location.  
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the search and access interface further comprises a retrieval subroutine for retrieving said asset in its entirety.  
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 3 , further comprising a browsing subroutine capable of cooperating with the search and access interface to allow a user to browse through at least a portion of the asset catalog entries.  
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein assets and/or asset catalog entries are accessed using industry standard Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) in accordance with the identification scheme.  
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each said asset or asset catalog entry comprises at least one of an archival asset, a collection of archival assets, metadata about an archival asset, and metadata about a collection of archival assets.  
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the metadata includes an asset integrity seal uniquely derived from the asset that enables detection of corrupted assets should subsequent re-derivation of a seal result in a different seal than the original stored in the metadata.  
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein, in accordance with the identification scheme, each asset catalog entry includes at least a universally unique and immutable identifier of an asset and at least one such identifier of the asset's physical component(s).  
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein each asset catalog entry further includes a security description, lifecycle data, and/or one or more universally unique and immutable reference(s), in accordance with the identification scheme, each indicating a relation between the asset catalog entry and another asset catalog entry and/or asset.  
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein the one or more reference(s) refer to another version of the asset and/or corresponding asset catalog entry.  
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each said asset catalog entry is capable of including metadata for facilitating search and/or access indexing, and/or efficiency in metadata capture and/or interpretation.  
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one schema is an XML schema.  
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the identification scheme provides two identifiers to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries, the first identifier being an asset identifier and the second identifier being a Universal Resource Identifier.  
     
     
         27 . A method of managing an extremely large scale computer storage system, the method comprising: 
 providing an asset catalog comprising a plurality of asset catalog entries stored according to at least one schema and corresponding to a plurality of assets;    storing in a storage architecture the plurality of assets, the storage architecture comprising a storage locator and a federator; and    providing item identifiers via an identification scheme to locate, access, and/or reference assets and/or asset catalog entries stored in the asset catalog in the storage architecture,    wherein the computer storage system is scalable essentially without limitation while maintaining asset storage and retrieval flexibility and substantially obsolescence-proof survivability of assets.    
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least one storage location.  
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising providing a search and access interface configured to cooperate with one or more search engines to enable indexing of and/or searching for at least one of the asset catalog entries and/or at least one corresponding asset.  
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 28 , further comprising arranging the at least one storage location such that the asset catalog entries are stored near to their corresponding persisted assets.  
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least two storage locations, and wherein the method further comprises also storing at least some of the asset catalog in a second storage location, the second storage location being a higher performance storage tier.  
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the storage architecture comprises at least two storage locations, a first storage location for storing aggregate-level assets catalog entries and a second storage location for storing item-level assets catalog entries.  
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the at least one storage location comprises one or more of: a file system, a relational database, and an object database.  
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the at least one storage location includes a plurality of storage units and/or sets of storage units, each said asset and asset catalog entry being stored in at least one storage unit or storage unit set.  
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein each asset catalog entry is an XML document.  
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 28 , providing redundancy for performance, availability, and/or recoverability for the assets and/or asset catalog entries by arranging the storage architecture so as to comprise at least two storage locations, each storing the same asset catalog entries or assets.  
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 27 , wherein the storage architecture cooperates to map assets and/or asset catalog entries to at least one storage location of the storage architecture based at least in part on metadata associated with the respective asset or asset catalog entry and/or configurable mapping rules and/or persisted storage patterns.  
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 29 , further comprising providing a clustering subroutine and/or a caching subroutine in cooperation with the storage architecture to improve the performance of the search and access interface.  
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising transparently accessing a plurality of storage locations of the storage architecture irrespective of a storage implementation associated with a particular storage location via the federator.  
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising making the computer storage system independent and available at each of a plurality of geographic locations, the plurality of locations including at least some portions of the asset catalog and assets.  
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40 , further comprising making the computer storage system at each geographic location available to each said location through cooperation among computer storage system at each said location.  
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the search and access interface further comprises a retrieval subroutine for retrieving said asset in its entirety.  
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 29 , further comprising providing a browsing subroutine capable of cooperating with the search and access interface to allow a user to browse through at least a portion of the asset catalog entries.  
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 29 , further comprising accessing the assets and/or asset catalog entries are using industry standard Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) in accordance with the identification scheme.  
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein each said asset or asset catalog entry comprises at least one of an archival asset, a collection of archival assets, metadata about an archival asset, and metadata about a collection of archival assets.  
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the metadata includes an asset integrity seal uniquely derived from the asset that enables detection of corrupted assets should subsequent re-derivation of a seal result in a different seal than the original stored in the metadata.  
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein, in accordance with the identification scheme, each asset catalog entry includes at least a universally unique and immutable identifier of an asset and at least one such identifier of the asset's physical component(s).  
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein each asset catalog entry further includes a security description, lifecycle data, and/or one or more universally unique and immutable reference(s), in accordance with the identification scheme, each indicating a relation between the asset catalog entry and another asset catalog entry and/or asset.  
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein the one or more reference(s) refer to another version of the asset and/or corresponding asset catalog entry.  
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising including, in each said asset catalog entry, metadata for facilitating search and/or access indexing, and/or efficiency in metadata capture and/or interpertation.  
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the at least one schema is an XML schema.  
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising providing two identifiers in connection with the identification scheme to reference, locate, and/or access said assets and/or said asset catalog entries, the fist identifier being an asset identifier and the second identifier being a Universal Resource Identifier.