DATA & ANALYTICS
“ NetApp StorageGRID enables the RAF to collect, store and manage the vast quantities of data gleaned from sorties by air and sea,” says Piero.“ Our softwaredefined object storage solution supports industry-leading innovations such as automated lifecycle management to store, secure, protect and preserve unstructured data cost-effectively over an entire data lifecycle.”
What makes this system particularly valuable is its approach to metadata tagging and data curation. Previously, analysts might need to sift through hours of sensor recordings to find significant events. Now, data is tagged during ingestion, allowing analysts to home in on critical segments.
“ The data is tagged and labeled, enabling end users to focus on critical data,” explains NetApp’ s Ewen Litster.“ The RAF can collect many hours of data, but most of it isn ' t as valuable as certain elements. They use metadata and data labeling to highlight particular parts that they want to concentrate on.”
Developing the data intelligence cycle This data management system plays a crucial role in what defence professionals call‘ the intelligence cycle’ – collecting, processing, exploiting, disseminating and decision-making. The P-8 collects the data, StorageGRID helps process and curate it, analysts exploit it to generate intelligence, which is then disseminated to decisionmakers who may retask the aircraft based on new findings.
“ Having the data moving around that cycle – being processed and managed speedily, securely, and with integrity
88 May 2025