ST1801

CASE STUDY: STUDY
NETWORK RAIL
ON TRACK FOR CLOUD ARCHIVAL
NETWORK RAIL HAS PARTNERED WITH PRESERVICA TO CREATE A CLOUD-BASED DIGITAL ARCHIVE
DESIGNED TO ACTIVELY PRESERVE, AND PROVIDE SECURE ACCESS TO, VITAL OPERATIONAL
INFORMATION AND UNIQUE DIGITAL ASSETS FROM THE HISTORY OF THE UK'S RAILWAY NETWORK
Vicky Stretch, Archivist at Network Rail,
said: "We're handling and preserving our
records using Preservica to engage people in
both the history of the railway and in
Network Rail's role in delivering a 21st
century railway infrastructure. Safeguarding
our cultural and business records will ensure
a high degree of access over time. It also
allows our team to manage our information
intelligently and efficiently."
Preservica's active digital preservation
technology will ensure these critical
information assets remain readable and
useable over decades through active
management and migration of files as older
formats become obsolete.
Established in 2002, Network Rail owns,
manages and develops Britain's railway
infrastructure - the 20,000 miles of
track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts and the
thousands of signals, level crossings and
stations (the largest of which they also run).
In partnership with train operators,
Network Rail helps people take more than
1.65 billion journeys by rail every year and
moves hundreds of millions of tonnes of
freight, saving almost 8 million lorry
journeys. The organisation employs 38,000
people across Britain and work round-theclock,
each and every day, to provide a safe,
reliable railway.
Digital information held in Preservica's
AWS hosted digital preservation platform will
be used to inform new projects across the
business, and meet legal obligations under
the Railway Heritage Act 1996 to make
important business and infrastructure
records accessible indefinitely.
The new archive will serve the dual role
of protecting born-digital business
information generated since 2002, along
with digital heritage content. This includes
organisational, corporate and
operational records such as annual
company reports, board meeting minutes,
timetables and marketing campaigns, as
well as valuable digitised artefacts such
as Brunel's railway engineering drawings
dating back to the 1830s.
Priority materials for transfer to Preservica
include Network Rail's extensive digital film
collection. These include time-lapse videos
of projects such as the Ordsall Chord Great
North Rail Project in Manchester and work
on the concourse roof at Kings Cross station
in London.
"After extensively researching ways to meet
our obligations and guarantee access, we
settled on Preservica," explains Vicky Stretch.
"Their active digital preservation software will
allow us to keep our information 'alive' by
migrating files to newer formats over time, as
well as providing secure online access for
internal users and the public. As we produce
new digital content every day, the system will
also let us move files to the cloud on a realtime
basis for safekeeping and access."
Preservica CEO Mike Quinn added:
"Network Rail joins a growing number of
government and business archives using
Preservica's cloud-hosted preservation
software to future-proof critical digital
information assets. These include Transport
for London (TfL), several county councils and
The UK Met Office. We're delighted that
Preservica will play a part in ensuring that
Network Rail's vital cultural and business
records are accessible for decades to come."
More info: www.preservica.com
www.storagemagazine.co.uk
@STMagAndAwards Jan/Feb 2018
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STORAGE
MAGAZINE
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