Successful Migration with Zero Loss of Data – NARA ERA O&M

Dev & Testing

Impact

0

Loss of data

0TB

Terabytes of data

0+

Millions of SIPs validated

Overview

Since 1934, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has performed centralized archiving of all federal records since 1934, including print, digital, audio, and video records. All branches of the government must submit their records for review to the archivists at NARA, who then accept or reject records based on their historical importance. Once they deem a record fit for the Archive, they digitize it, if necessary, and place it into the Electronic Records Archive (ERA), NARA’s archival database..

The ERA is a massive system. Developed more than 40 years ago, it contains more than 900 terabytes of data, including over 800 million unique classified and non-classified files. The aging ERA system needed more storage, a more streamlined design, and faster systems. A new ERA 2.0 platform would require three major components in an AWS GovCloud environment to enable future expansion, faster processing, and greater storage for all important federal records:

A processing component,
A digital repository, and
Workflows for scheduling and transfer.

Challenge

The massive ERA system was developed more than 40 years ago and now contains more than 900 TB of data, including over 800 million unique classified and non-classified files. Replacing NARA’s aging legacy system with an entirely new platform was a daunting task. Millions of files, TB of data, and all archival transfers secured with absolutely zero loss of data or integrity.

NARA also needed to maintain operations and maintenance (O&M) services for their legacy ERA while providing development, modernization, and enhancement (DM&E) for their new AWS GovCloud platform, ERA 2.0. These no-fail activities required future-forward, scalable, and cost-effective solutions.

Solution

Softek provided new O&M and DM&E components for NARA, with a complete catalog of the following services:

Electronic document management,
Information system security,
Software engineering,

Management consulting,
Business process consulting, and
Technical writing.

We also supplied the full lifecycle of services for ERA to ERA 2.0 development and migration tasks, including application development, coding, configuration, and digital file verification.
Softek’s proven DevSecOps approach helped manage each step of the transition process, and our Agile methods ensured the on-time delivery of all services and components.

Results

Softek’s O&M and DM&E activities provided NARA with:

Provide top-notch security,
Validation of millions of submission information packages,
Migration of over 900 terabytes of data reduced operational costs through strategic use of AWS GovCloud,
Mitigation of issues in near-real time, and
Successful migration of ERA to ERA 2.0 with zero loss of data and zero effects on data integrity.

Visit catalog.archives.gov to see how our results make it easy to browse through history at lightning speed.