Irma D. Rutherford Virtual Reality (VR) is hot, but many have not experienced VR or even fully grasped its many applications. It is changing now that VR is becoming more mainstream. Businesses that are innovating within the VR area are able to raise funds in large numbers as the field as a whole racked up a record amount of $3 billion in investment in the year 2017.
Although the excitement is obvious for both developers and consumers, We’re also seeing an increase in acceptance of VR for military and commercial applications. For instance, one company has announced a complete geospatial system that lets telco companies analyze the environment with 3D and 4D, as well as deploy new networks. It is a vast field of possibilities; however, first, we have to address one major issue that is currently ignored: what to do with the innumerable huge data files being generated through VR platforms.
What Industries Use VR?
The aviation and entertainment industries were the first to adopt VR; however, VR is now proving to be an important advantage in real estate as well as healthcare, defense, and education.
In the real estate industry, VR, for instance, lets builders “show” prospective clients their structures in 3D before construction teams have even laid a foot on the ground. In the field of healthcare, VR helps doctors prepare for major surgeries by providing sophisticated real-time simulations. The sports industry, too, is prime for VR. The technology allows viewers to travel from their home to the 18th hole of Augusta National and let NFL quarterbacks transcend the study of film in order to “play” against their opponent’s 4-3 defense before they take the field.
These innovative, exciting applications generate a huge quantity of data that needs to be protected, stored, and stored for the long term. The files used in VR are enormous, and the applications can create up to one terabyte worth of data in an hour, according to the camera. A sports team streaming 60 games per year for three hours per game has to be ready to store more than 180 Terabytes.
The fact that it is not possible to store VR data has prevented some companies from investing in VR technology in the first place. Companies must be savvy regarding how they keep their VR data, or they will incur costs that can impede other initiatives for development and planning.
Storing VR Data
Cloud storage isn’t a good option for VR since there’s the constant requirement to retrieve, edit, and re-enforce the content. Although the initial costs of cloud storage are low, the cost of keeping the information in the cloud is costly as data grows. Retrieving data from cloud storage is also an expensive task, particularly when the files are large, like VR. The network pipe to transfer 1TB at a time would cause financial hardship for most businesses.
The main thing to store VR data is to find the right solution that will allow organizations to have access to and play with the files and then archive them in a cost-effective way to keep the data safe and secure for the duration of time. In most cases, this is a two-tier storage system, which includes the storage of NAS (NAS) at the front and tape storage on the back.
It is a low-cost system that’s perfect for content in VR. Tier-one storage systems, including NAS disk systems, allow information to be easily accessible, which is ideal for VR content that’s active and ready for editing. When editing is finished, after which the contents are complete, the content can be transferred to a lower-cost storage medium, such as tape. While tape storage is affordable, it’s also the only storage medium that isn’t susceptible to cyber-attacks.
A two-tier storage system can help make it easier for VR companies to save time and money while storing their content. The VR industry is growing rapidly; however, without adequate storage facilities to safeguard and preserve data over the long run, it is likely to slow. Companies operating within the VR space are investing billions in the creation of content. To be successful in running companies, they have to invest in scalable and viable storage infrastructures that will keep up with the pace of the number of VR content files.
The opinions presented in the article are not necessarily the views that Data Center Knowledge and Informa hold.
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