STA backups

What is the risk of data loss? We get asked this all the time, and it’s a very serious question. You invest in the capture of data so you don’t want to see it go missing. In this short post, we’ll explain the levels of redundancy in our data storage and retrieval process.

First of all, when your logger collects data, it is stored on the internal memory of the device. There it remains until it is uploaded via WiFi to our STA logger data processing centre. However, once it uploads, your data files are not immediately erased, so if something unimagineable happens at STA logger HQ, your recent data can be retrieved directly from the devices internal memory. But lets hope nothing happens to STA logger HQ …

Once uploaded, your files are processed. During this processing the files are duplicated and stored in different locations. A backup is also created of both of these versions effectively meaning there are four versions of your data to this point, plus a fifth that is still on your device. Once processing is complete, the data is appended to your (cloud) hosted service which is the version you interact with on a daily basis. This cloud service is hosted by Esri, and is independent of our offices, so once your data reaches this stage, it is in 3 places. This means you could lose your device, and our offices could burn down all on the same day, but we will still have a copy available to recover.

So before you even see the data, there have been backups made in three locations in the case of disaster.