Content Server Architecture Pattern for Evolvability and Scalability

Significant requirements for a large digital preservation system are the system scalability, its ability to store and service heterogeneous digital holdings, and the evolvability over time of both the technologies comprising the system and the data formats in its storage. The use of information technology by the government, business corporations, academic institutions, and the general public results in staggering amounts of digital-born materials requiring long-term preservation and access. Organizations in different domains have to cope with the daunting task of storing and providing access to the growing amount of digital data. In many cases data heterogeneity, which ranges from office automation and geospatial images, to multimedia artifacts, adds to the challenge. In response to these challenges, we propose a Content Server Architecture Pattern. Content Server Architecture Pattern can be applied for instantiation of data-centric architecture, service-centric architecture, storage technology-centric architecture or an architecture that is some hybrid of that set to implement a Content Server Repository portion of a digital preservation system. A key characteristic of Content Server Architecture Pattern is its versatility that allows tailoring of the architecture of a digital preservation system to specific business needs.