Avid Attic is an “auto-save” feature of Avid Media Composer. It is designed to periodically save bins so you can roll-back to previous versions or retrieve corrupted bins.

Avid Attic is largely designed to protect work in progress Avid bins and projects from a limited set of failure scenarios. This includes failures related to operator error (e.g., accidental deletion of clips/sequences etc.) or corruptions.

• Since Avid Attic automatically backs up bins/project files it can quickly fill up. Hence it is recommended that the files be manually deleted periodically as files can accumulate quickly especially for larger projects.
• DNAfabric on the other hand can keep an unlimited set of backups on another target e.g., cloud without slowing down or occupying extra space.

While Avid Attic does provide a protection net, numerous error cases are not covered. Scenarios not covered by Avid Attic includes:

1. Storage corruption or failure where the original and backup bins can be both lost.
2. Site wide disasters where temporary or permanent data loss can occur.
3. Malicious attacks like ransomware where entire data volumes can be rendered un-useable.

DNAfabric can incrementally backup bins, projects and settings files. In addition, it can preserve previous point in time copies or snapshots, allowing users to restore from any of these previous versions. DNAfabric can maintain numerous copies configurable by the administrator.

DNAfabric allows two types of rollback retrievals in case of a disaster scenario.

1. File Rollbacks: In the first case, admins or users can retrieve individual files e.g. avb, avp files to their last version or one of the previous versions.
2. Volume/Workspace Rollbacks: In the second case, admins or users can request entire directories or volumes be rolled back to a previous version.

Since DNAfabric allows for individual files, folder or workspace rollbacks, multiple failure scenarios are covered. This includes the following:

1. Bin/Project deletion or corruption
2. Malicious attacks through ransomware, malware etc.
3. Storage failures
4. Site wide disasters

Multiple backup targets are supported for replication and snapshots:

1. Disk/FS targets
2. Public object: AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Object, Wasabi (*), Backblaze B2, Google Drive.
3. Private Object: S3 compatible e.g. MinIO.
4. LTO/LTFS (*via DNAevolution)

Avid Nexis Cloudspaces is a “cloud-backed workspace” available on an Avid Nexis filesystem.

• Avid Nexis Cloudspaces are special workspaces on an Avid Nexis. These workspaces look like other workspaces but when data is written to them, it is stored in the cloud (more specifically Azure Blob) rather than the local storage.
• When data is needed, it is restored from the cloud and brought back down.

While Avid Nexis Cloudspaces is an easy, built-in feature, it does have the following drawbacks:

1. Need a data backup engine that can periodically backup on-disk workspaces to a Cloudspace.
2. If users are not careful, accessing files stored on a workspace can result in egress from the cloud which can be costly and time consuming.
3. Cloudspaces is tied to a single cloud vendor and cloud tier with higher costs on storage and egress.

• DNAfabric can incrementally backup and snapshot native Avid Media workspaces to one of many targets including filesystems, public object, private object, LTO and LTFS (*via DNAevolution).
• DNAfabric can work on single workspaces or entire workspaces if needed.

DNAfabric can backup and snapshot AMA or linked media folders and volumes as well. One or more media folders can be scanned and incrementally backed up.

DNAfabric time rollback feature allows users to select a previous point in time to “rollback” a volume to. When this is performed, the volume is rolled back and can be accessed as it was at a previous time. This protects from a number of failure scenarios.

Since all media files and accompanying database files e.g., pmr, mdb etc. are backed up and snapshotted, DNAfabric can help recover from a number of failure scenarios:

1. Media file(s) deletion or corruption
2. Malicious attacks through ransomware, malware etc.
3. Storage failures
4. Site wide disasters

DNAfabric does not backup the internal file-system metadata structures of Avid Nexis or an Avid file-system. However, this can be achieved by backing up the project/bin and related Avid application databases. This allows for a quick recovery when the primary storage recovers or a recovery to an alternative storage platform.

DNAfabric can optionally create “stub link” files on the primary filesystem after archiving a file. These stub files are tiny HTML files that are left behind after the primary copy has been archived. The primary file is moved to a quarantine location for deletion and the original location is replaced with an HTML stub file.

• Stub files can be created both for native Avid media files and linked/AMA media files.
• For native Avid Media files, stub files are created in a sub-location of the Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 or Editbay folder. This is done to prevent auto-quarantine of these files by Avid Media Composer.
• For linked/AMA media, stub files replace the original files. For linked/AMA media, Avid Media Composer is less strict about quarantining the stub file.

DNAfabric supports the following types of archiving for an Avid Media Composer environment:

1. AAF based: Finished sequences of projects can be exported as an AAF. DNAfabric can parse the AAF and archive the related media assets.
2. Workspace/Folder based: Entire workspaces or folders can be archived as well.

DNAfabric enables synchronization of assets to and from Sony Ci and Frame.IO. This includes syncing original/hi-res files

• Disk/FS targets
• Public object: AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Object, Wasabi (*), Backblaze B2, Google Drive.
• Private Object: S3 compatible e.g., MinIO.
• LTO/LTFS (*via DNAevolution)

DNAfabric enables ALE based retrievals enabling selective retrievals of bins, sequences and projects from any of the above-mentioned targets. This allows a reduction in costs from cloud providers that often charge based on the amount of data egressed.

DNAfabric enables one-way, two-way and multi-way/multi-site replication allowing multiple Avid Nexis and other Avid filesystems to be replicated. It can accelerate and secure while managing project/bin locking. It can handle both workspace updates and bin/project updates.

Learn more here.

Learn more here.