Sun Secure Data Retrieval Server for Communications Service Providers

CopperEye and Sun recognized that traditional data management approaches are inadequate in meeting the compliance and security requirements of current communications-related regulations. The Sun Secure Data Retrieval Server (SDRS) for Communications Service Providers (CSPs) combines CopperEye's innovative data retention and retrieval technology, a robust Java-based request and disclosure system and the high performing, energy-efficient Sun Fire™ X4500 server running the Solaris™ operating system as a turn-key appliance. SDRS is suitable for the long term retention and retrieval of all electronic communications data, including fixed and mobile telephony and IP, and is designed to meet the challenges of the EU DRD and other regulatory frameworks with minimal impact to day-to-day business operations.

Delivered as a completely integrated hardware and software appliance, SDRS provides a scalable, high-performance solution for CSPs. SDRS delivers the secure retention and management of large volumes of communications data as well as the business processes required to manage requests and disclosures of appropriate data. SDRS contains a configurable disclosure process server and web-based interface.

Current legislation demands a surgical approach to data retrieval that is proportional, secure, timely and auditable and does not allow for a broad analytical view of all communications data. SDRS has proven performance capabilities in simultaneously ingesting and querying against massive volumes of data, rapidly delivering the data specified to fully satisfy a request while confidently meeting the legislative demands. SDRS performance is achieved with minimal systems management costs and unparalleled energy efficiency.

The SDRS solution has been technically designed to provide optimum

  • Simplicity. Minimal business and systems impact, low maintenance and "plug & comply" methodology.
  • Performance. Extreme ingest rates and concurrent queries delivered within seconds not minutes.
  • Security. Auditable workflow, encryption and digital data sealing as well as proportionate data access.
  • Environmental Impact. High density, energy efficient storage and retrieval environment.
  • Risk Management. Proven solution with a known platform and existing support infrastructure.
  • Reduced Total Cost of Ownership. Eliminates the need for re-skilling operational teams enabling you to maximize existing investments by leveraging our economical appliance approach.

Solution Highlights

SDRS combines the most appropriate hardware and software architectures for data retention and retrieval while providing the following unique combination of solution characteristics that represent the core requirements for any compliant solution.
  • Extreme Ingestion Rates. SDRS can ingest billions of communication records per day, supporting the transaction rates generated by large and growing telecommunications networks with millions of subscribers.
  • Low Latency. The time lag between a communications record being received and becoming available for disclosure is kept to an absolute minimum to ensure disclosure service level agreements are easily met.
  • Long Retention. SDRS easily and economically supports increasing retention periods and extreme transaction volumes (communications records per day) translating to very large retained volumes requiring terabytes to petabytes of storage.
  • Selective Retrieval. SDRS leverages indexes that deliver the most appropriate and efficient solution for selective retrieval. Disclosure requests are satisfied within seconds, compared to current timelines of days and sometimes weeks.
  • Fully Retained Detail. SDRS retains the full detail of all original communications records received from the network to ensure that any information required for disclosure is available as and when required. This approach enables us to support changes in regulatory requirements as they evolve in response to new technology and new threats.
  • Evidential Quality. Communications records are retained with original content and format within their original files to guarantee the evidential quality of the data disclosed for judicial purposes. All communication data files are stored in secure read-only, tamper-proof containers.
  • Secured Data. Communications records contain sensitive details that impart information about network subscribers and their activities. SDRS for CSPs ensures that disclosure details are secured against inappropriate access and that any disclosed information is appropriate to the authority requesting a disclosure.
  • ETSI Compliant. SDRS is fully compliant with current European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) requirements in support of the European Data Retention Directive (EU DRD).

Features

SDRS for CSPs offers a complete solution with all of the features required to support the EU DRD, including:
  • File Format Support. SDRS provides network file format configuration to support the variety of network file formats possible for data ingestion prior to or post network mediation - allowing data ingestion and retention to continue uninterrupted regardless of the addition of new network elements, software revisions and features.
  • Reference Snapshots. Contextual reference data, such as geographical network information, can be regularly ingested and retained within the appliance to provide accurate time-dependent contexts to all disclosed communications data.
  • Data Lifecycle Management. The data retention and destruction cycles required by the EU DRD and nation state legislation are automatically applied to the communication data, reference data and disclosures. Different lifecycle policies can be applied to different categories of data to ensure the correct preservation and destruction of all data is retained by the appliance.
  • Audit Trails. Comprehensive audit trails are maintained to provide full accountability for evidential quality and for reporting against service level agreements and charging arrangements. Audit trails are maintained for all significant events, including file lifecycle events and user activity.

Operational Results

SDRS offers a fast-to-deploy solution with minimal operational impact and extremely low cost of ownership through:
  • Proportional Footprint. The SDRS appliance is based on the state-of-the-art Sunfire™ X4500 server with a 4RU size and 2KW power footprint offering internal storage of up to 48Tbyte.
  • Resilience. Hardware redundancy, solution mirroring, replication and synchronization are provided throughout to avoid single points of failure and to afford high availability and disaster resilience. Hot swappable disks are arranged in resilient RAID arrays with hot spares to maximize media reliability.
  • Nominal Management. Nominal administration effort allows the appliance to meet its demanding workload with minimal impact on support staff and surrounding systems.

SDRS is currently supporting Communications Service Providers with compliance requirements demanding between 2 terabytes and 1.2 petabytes of retained communications data.

To find out more
Contact a member of our compliance specialist team to learn how we can support your needs.

A Compliance Appliance Solution for Data Retention Directives


A new category of data access
Download A4 Format
Download 8.5 x 11 Format

Executive Interviews, Analyst Reports, White Papers

Contact Us