The PASIG event is a forum for the exchange of experience in building practical solutions to the digital preservation challenge. Attendees come from a variety of backgrounds including academia, memory institutions and the commercial sector.  Tessella has been a long standing member of this community and we look forward to our continued participation as the transition is made to an independent group.

Mark Evans, Digital Practice Manager at Tessella, will be presenting at the Boot camp – a session aimed at new attendees and focused on providing an educational insight into the digital preservation domain. Tessella will also be discussing our pilot cloud service; Preservation as a Service (PaaS) as part of a session on cloud infrastructures.

If you would like a prearranged meeting with Tessella at this event please email info@tessella.com.

For full event details including the agenda are available at the following link  http://sites.tdl.org/austinpasig/

Attendance will include SDB users from the UK, Dutch and Estonian National Archives, the Wellcome Trust Libraries and the Parliamentary Archives

The National Archives is the only public sector organisation among this year’s winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. In doing so it becomes the first winner from a government department since the awards were expanded in 2000.

An Innovation Award was made jointly to The National Archives and Tessella for developing a system for preserving digital information which has since been adopted by libraries and archives around the world.

The Safety Deposit Box (SDB) is capable of ensuring the survival of digital information over long periods of time, regardless of changes in technology. At a time when archives, libraries and other institutions are grappling with the complexities of ensuring the long-term survival of digital information, SDB has become the de-facto standard. Now available in its fourth version, it remains unique in the marketplace.

Oliver Morley, chief executive of The National Archives, said: “Preserving digital records is one of the biggest challenges facing archives in the twenty-first century. Unlike paper records, which can last for hundreds of years in the right conditions, digital records are extremely vulnerable to changing technology. The National Archives and Tessella have worked together to develop a best-in-class archiving solution which has since been adopted by archives and libraries all over the world. This innovative approach is one key step to ensure digital records remain accessible for good.”

Kevin Gell, managing director at Tessella said: “Winning the Queens Award, jointly with our client The National Archives, is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates the strength of collaboration forged between UK industry and UK Government, which has enabled a number of export successes for Tessella’s SDB technology.”

Gell continued: “I feel honoured that Tessella has been recognised with such a prestigious award and I should like to pay tribute to Tessella’s staff for their innovation and commitment over an extended period of time. This award will strengthen our resolve to see Tessella’s digital preservation technologies adopted on a global basis.”

The SDB provides users with the ability to store and preserve critical digital information in a reliable yet accessible manner. Most importantly, it contains an Active Preservation capability to ensure the information is trusted and remains usable long into the future.

The National Archives’ identification of an emerging business need in information management and its commissioning of Tessella as a private partner to solve this problem is a significant example of public-private partnership which has stimulated the UK high-tech economy and put Britain at the forefront of a new international business.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are highly prestigious awards for outstanding achievement by UK businesses in the categories of Innovation, International Trade and Sustainable Development. The awards are made annually on the Queen’s Birthday and are only given for the highest levels of excellence demonstrated in each category. HM The Queen will host a reception for the winners at Buckingham Palace in July 2011.

-Ends-

Notes to editors:

About SDB

SDB is a comprehensive, flexible system that has been selected and installed at many advanced customers. Version 1 was delivered to the National Archives in 2003 and has since had a number of upgrades. Version 3 has been implemented widely and the latest release, Version 4, was delivered in mid-2010 and adds even more capabilities.

SDB is a fully functioned digital archival solution that has all the capabilities ready for immediate implementation.

The SDB system developed by Tessella and The National Archives has been adopted by libraries and archives all over the world including: Wellcome Trust Library, Arkib Negara (Malaysian Archives), Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands), Gemeente Rotterdam (Rotterdam City Archive), Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv (Swiss Federal Archives), Rahvusarchiiv (National Archives of Estonia), Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (Austrian State Archives) and Arkistolaitos (Finnish National Archives Service) and the Finnish Archives.
Tessella also works FamilySearch International which has selected Tessella’s SDB to maintain the digital records that enable people to connect with their ancestors.

About Digital Archiving at Tessella

We are world leaders in the provision of Digital Archiving technologies, working with major governments in 7 countries across 3 continents. Tessella’s Digital Archiving offerings cover software, consulting, research and support and place us at the cutting edge of this emerging discipline. Our core technology, SDB, is now in its fourth generation and provides stable professionally supported platform with the flexibility to deliver individual customer needs.

For further information visit our dedicated microsite on http://www.digital-preservation.com

About Tessella

Founded in 1980, Tessella is the international provider of science powered technology and consulting services. World leading organizations choose our unique blend of science, engineering and sector expertise to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions to complex real-world commercial and technical challenges. Our people are high achievers from leading universities and are passionate about delivering value to clients.

For further information visit http://www.tessella.com

About The National Archives

The National Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk, is a non-ministerial government department and an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). As the official archive of the UK government, it preserves, protects and makes accessible one of the most significant historical collections of official records in the world, dating back over 1000 years.

As a leading advocate of the archive sector, The National Archives expertise touches every point in the lifecycle of information – from the early stages of planning processes and storage methods, through the creation, management, use and re-use of information in day-to-day business by government and citizens, right through to its eventual archiving and long-term preservation. This work helps inform government’s decisions and ensures that they become tomorrow’s permanent record.

Today The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed in our digital world for managing and preserving government information past, present and future – and for making it accessible to its users.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Media Contacts
The National Archives
Tommy Norton, Press Officer
+44 (0) 208 392 5277 press@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk
Tessella
Christina Tealdi – Public and Analyst Relations Executive
+ 44 (0)7799346453 | + 44 (0) 1235 546 638 | teac@tessella.com

Oxford, UK | 5th April 2011. Tessella, the international provider of science-powered technology and consulting services, is pleased to announce that FamilySearch International has selected Tessella’s Safety Deposit Box (SDB) to maintain the digital records that enable people to connect with their ancestors.

Russell Stay, senior vice president for the Information Division of FamilySearch, said: “FamilySearch is dedicated to preserving the records of the family of mankind. Its purpose is to simply connect people with their ancestors through easy access to historical records.”

Stay added, “As part of this mission, we must capture and preserve huge numbers of digital records. Tessella’s SDB gives FamilySearch a strong technical platform and most importantly the ability to share best practices and workflows with the active and noteworthy Tessella SDB user community.”

Stay continued: “We see Tessella as a great partner in pushing digital archiving technology beyond the current early adopters. We think their commercial model that combines a professionally supported core with shared open source tools for specific micro-services will be very attractive to the community, and we look forward to using our experience and investment to enable the whole archiving world to benefit.”

Jon Tilbury, the director responsible for building Tessella’s digital archiving capabilities, said: “Both Tessella and FamilySearch are committed to using this relationship and the capabilities it yields to broaden the availability of digital archiving technology to a much wider range of organisations. With the backing of FamilySearch and the incorporation of the ideas and drive from the academic community, we hope to make SDB the platform of choice where budgets and know-how have, so far, been unable to stretch in this emerging discipline.”

CEO at Tessella Inc., Grant Stephen, commented: “I am extremely pleased that FamilySearch chose Tessella as the solution for their digital records. We are looking forward to working with FamilySearch to demonstrate the ability of SDB to scale to the levels required by their specification.”

Mark Evans, the Practice Head of Tessella’s U.S. Digital Archiving team, added: “The FamilySearch digital archiving facility will be huge in terms of archive size and throughput. We are looking forward to working with the FamilySearch experts to solve these challenges and are delighted they have placed their confidence in our software and our team.”

FamilySearch joins the SDB community of archives and libraries such as the UK, Swiss, Malaysian, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, and Austrian state archives, as well as the Rotterdam Regional Archives, the Wellcome Trust Library and most recently the Minnesota Historical Society and the Library of Congress.

Tessella’s SDB technology is the leading platform for the preservation of long-term digital records in archives around the world. FamilySearch chose the latest version of Tessella’s Safety Deposit Box (SDB4) as the best available solution to manage the ingest process for their archives. SDB4 has been designed to help memory institutions (including libraries and archives), who are already skilled at preserving paper material, to overcome the problems posed by preserving material stored in digital formats.

Tessella’s Safety Deposit Box was developed out of work done in partnership with The National Archives of the UK to help confront the problem of digital preservation. The software, which has already been in use at The National Archives for over six years as the basis of their award-winning Digital Archive system, has been significantly enhanced as part of The National Archives’ Seamless Flow programme.

-Ends-

Notes to the Media

About Family Search

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the renowned Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Further information is available at familysearch.org.

About Digital Archiving at Tessella

Tessella are world leaders in the provision of Digital Archiving technologies, working with major governments in 7 countries across 3 continents. Tessella’s Digital Archiving offerings cover software, consulting, research and support and place us at the cutting edge of this emerging discipline. Our core technology, SDB, is now in its fourth generation and provides stable professionally supported platform with the flexibility to deliver individual customer needs.

For further information visit our dedicated microsite on www.digital-preservation.com

About Tessella

Founded in 1980, Tessella is the international provider of science powered technology and consulting services. World leading organizations choose our unique blend of science, engineering and sector expertise to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions to complex real-world commercial and technical challenges. Our people are high achievers from leading universities and are passionate about delivering value to clients.

For further information visit our dedicated website on www.tessella.com

Media Contacts

Tessella

Christina Tealdi | Public and Analyst Executive

Phone: +44 (0) 1235 555511 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 779 9346453

christina.tealdi(@tessella.com

FamilySearch

Scott Bean, Strategic Relations

Phone: +1 (801) 240-4123

Mobile: +1 (801) 999-8644

sbean@familysearch.org

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Our aim is to provide you with interesting information on topical technology and consulting issues and key client projects which we hope you will find of use. We depend on the feedback from our readers to help us develop tessella news and to maximise its usefulness and your input is always appreciated.

Yours sincerely,
Julian Fowler
Editor tessella news
info@tessella.com

Washington DC | 10 August 2010. Today, Tessella, the information technology and consulting services company selected by R&D, science and engineering leaders for business-critical assignments, launches version 4 of Tessella Safety Deposit Box (SDB4) at the DC2010 Archives & Records Joint Annual Meeting of COSA, NAGARA and SAA.

The technology helps memory institutions (including libraries and archives), who are already skilled at preserving traditional materials such as paper and microfiche; face the problems posed by preserving material stored in digital formats. Version 4 provides the architecture and functions to deliver a multi-tenant digital archiving solution that can support multiple small local archives through to large national systems. Key to this is a flexible workflow engine which allows customers an easy way to configure their own policy with regards to ingest, data management, access and preservation processes.

Mark Evans, Tessella Inc. Digital Archiving Practice Manager said: “We believe that multi-tenant capabilities are going to be increasingly important in future sustainable digital archiving solutions. The recent selection by the Austrian Federal Chancellery of Siemens IT Solutions & Services and Tessella SDB to develop the Austrian State e-government Archives validates this point of view”.

Grant Stephen, CEO at Tessella Inc. added: “We believe that working in partnership is hugely important to the success of SDB. SDB continues to be the archive of choice for advanced long-term archiving and the SDB User Group has really helped set product direction”. The SDB User Group now compromises 9 flagship organisations: UK National Archives, Swiss Federal Archives, Malaysian National Archives, Dutch National Archives, Rotterdam Regional Archives, Wellcome Trust Libraries, Estonian Archives, Austrian Federal Chancellery and recently the Finnish National Archives.

SDB was developed out of work done in partnership with The National Archives of the UK to help confront the problem of digital preservation. The software, which has already been in use at The UK National Archives for over six years as the basis of their award-winning Digital Archive system, has been significantly enhanced as part of The National Archives’ Seamless Flow programme.

- Ends -

Notes to the editor

About Tessella

For decades, Tessella has been successfully delivering IT and consulting services to world leaders in R&D, science and engineering. We enable our clients in life sciences, energy, the public sector, and consumer industries to achieve a wide range of objectives, including, forecasting floods, developing fusion power, enhancing military sensor capability, improving drug discovery and development efficiency, and reducing risk to health and the environment in the extraction and production of oil and gas. With offices in Europe and North America, global companies rely on Tessella for business critical assignments.

Further information is available at www.tessella.com or visit our dedicated microsite on http://www.digital-preservation.com/

Recent news on SDB

Finnish National Archives visit http://www.tessella.com/2010/06/press-release-the-finnish-national-archives-selects-tessella

Austrian Federal Chancellery visit http://www.tessella.com/2010/03/press-release-the-austrian-federal-chancellery/

Estonian Archives visit http://www.tessella.com/2009/11/press-release-estonia-national-archives

SDB User Group Meeting visit http://www.tessella.com/2009/12/sdb-user-group-meeting-2009-december-8-9th-2009-one-great-george-street-london-uk/

Media Contact

Tessella

Christina Tealdi | PR/AR Executive

Phone: +44 (0) 1235 555511 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 779 9346453

christina.tealdi@tessella.com

Tessella, an IT and consulting services company that provides digital archiving technology, is addressing the problem of long-term digital preservation. Its Safety Deposit Box (SDB) offering enables organizations to store and preserve digital information and, more importantly, to access this information even after several years…read more