SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISASTER RECOVERY

• US 20130080823A1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Stanley Robert Moote
• Inventors: Moote, Stanley Robert, Roth, Todd Stuart
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,476 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A disaster recovery system can include a plurality of resources arranged in a cloud computing environment. Each of the resources can be assignable to function within the cloud computing environment as part of one or more media systems. A content intake service can be programmed to control delivery of an incoming media asset to the cloud computing environment. A monitoring and recovery process can be programmed to monitor a primary media system to which the incoming media asset is being provided and, in response to detecting a disaster recovery condition, the monitoring and recovery process can intelligently manage selected resources of the plurality of resources based on the incoming media asset being delivered to the primary media system.

Claims

1. A disaster recovery system comprising:

a plurality of resources arranged in a cloud computing environment, each of the plurality of resources being assignable to function within the cloud computing environment as part of at least one media system;

a content intake service programmed to control delivery of an incoming media asset to the cloud computing environment; and

a monitoring and recovery process programmed to monitor a primary media system to which the incoming media asset is being provided and, in response to detecting a disaster recovery condition, the monitoring and recovery process to intelligently manage selected resources of the plurality of resources based on the incoming media asset being delivered to the primary media system.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a switchover control programmed to connect the selected resources into real-time operations of a media supply chain of the primary media system in response to a trigger.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the trigger comprises a user input provided by an authorized user.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a rule selector to select rules based on a definition of the media asset; and

a rules engine to control allocation and mapping of the plurality of resources for the disaster recovery condition based on the selected rules.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a metadata extractor to extract metadata from the incoming media asset being delivered to the primary media system, the definition of the media asset being generated based on the metadata.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the incoming media asset being delivered to the primary media system corresponds to a live real-time media asset, the rule selector selecting the rules to facilitate retrieving contingency content based on the definition of the media asset if the live real-time media asset cannot be delivered during the disaster recovery condition.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the contingency content comprises one of a different live media asset or a substitute media asset stored in a storage resource within the cloud computing environment.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the media asset being delivered to the primary media system corresponds to a pre-recorded media asset, the rule selector selecting the rules to facilitate retrieving the pre-recorded media asset from memory, based on the definition of the media asset, to enable scheduled playout thereof during the disaster recovery condition.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the content intake service further comprises a transcoder to transcode the incoming media asset to a corresponding disaster recovery asset having a reduced bit rate.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the content intake service further comprises a rules engine that controls at least one of delivery or storage of the corresponding disaster recovery asset to the cloud computing environment based on metadata for the incoming media asset.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary media system comprises a plurality of subscribing media systems, each having a respective subscription to the disaster recovery system, the plurality of resources in the cloud computing environment being thinly provisioned to service the plurality of subscribing primary media systems according to the respective subscriptions, such that in response to the monitoring and recovery process allocating a set of resources to a given subscribing media system, the allocated set of resources become deterministic for disaster recovery operations for the given subscribing media system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein an instance of the content intake service is provided for each of the plurality of subscribing media systems, at least some instances of the content intake service being programmed to modify media content of the incoming media assets.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring and recovery process allocates at least one resource to replicate an automation and asset management function of the primary media system.

14. A method of providing a disaster recovery service for broadcast media providers, the method comprising:

detecting a disaster recovery condition within a media supply chain of a respective media provider;

preparing and allocating resources in a cloud computing environment for switchover to corresponding operations in the media supply chain based on a definition of an incoming real-time media asset to the respective media provider; and

in response to receiving a trigger, switching over the operations in the media supply chain of the respective media provider to the allocated resources in the cloud computing environment to provide deterministic disaster recovery media operations for the respective media provider.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein preparing and allocating further comprises:

selecting rules based on the definition of the media asset; and

controlling allocation and mapping of the resources for the disaster recovery condition based on the selected rules.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

extracting metadata from the incoming real-time media asset; and

generating the definition of the media asset based on the extracted metadata.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the incoming real-time media asset corresponds to a live media asset, the rules being selected to enable retrieving a related contingency media asset based on the definition of the media asset if the live media asset cannot be delivered during the disaster recovery condition.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

extracting metadata from the incoming real-time media asset to the respective media system; and

selecting a contingency media asset based on the extracted metadata to replace an expected real-time media asset during the disaster recovery media operations.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising delivering the real-time media asset to a cloud storage resource assigned to the respective media provider based on associated rules.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising transcoding the real-time media asset to a reduced disaster recovery data rate such that media asset is stored in the cloud storage resource with the reduced disaster recovery data rate.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising sending an alert notification in response to detecting the disaster recovery condition, wherein the trigger is received in response to a user input responsive to the alert notification.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising allocating at least one media resource to replicate automation and asset management functions in the media supply chain of the respective media provider.