Use Case: Replicating Data for preservation, load balancing, and failsafe retrieval

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Description

Biodiversity data and supporting abiotic data are used in a variety of applications, including ecological synthesis studies, taxonomic research, and other areas. In many cases it is desirable for the data to be replicated to multiple locations on the Internet in oder to preserve the data in the event of institutional or technological disruptions. Replicated data records, whether they deal with specimens, observations of organisms, or abiotic parameters, need to be identified independently of the multiple locations in which they might be stored in order to assure that the records are not confused as being independent observations when in fact they are replicas. Thus it is critical that the GUID primarily serves the role of identifier and that it not be conflated with current location of the data record.

In some cases, the source dataset is composed of hundreds or thousands of individual data records, each identified by a GUID. In those cases, additional resolution mechanisms may be necessary to resolve and retrieve the source data efficiently. Examples of initiatives towards this goal are: the STDDOI and the SEEK projects.

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