Archival-grade optical discs like M-DISC promise to last hundreds or
even thousands of years. Tape storage lasts for a few decades, while
hard drives and SSDs can be trusted for 5-10 years, but it all depends
on how well you treat and store them.
While certain people had the luxury of writing important stuff on stone tablets, unfortunately most of us have preservation needs that go beyond ten lines of text. So what’s the next best thing to keep your bits crisp for centuries?
The Importance of Data Preservation
It’s easy to think of data preservation as something big companies or important people need to worry about, but what if you have information that you’ll need ten years or even fifty years from now? What if you need to preserve information somewhere for someone 100 years or more in the future?
For various reasons, you might need to hold onto data for a long time. Maybe you have some old documents or records that you’d like to pass down to future generations, or perhaps you need to keep financial records and other necessary paperwork around for legal reasons. Even if you’re trying to preserve your personal memories, like photos or videos, you’ll need to figure out a way to store all that stuff.
The key to preserving data over the long term is finding a storage format you can trust to last. This could mean using physical storage methods, like high-quality paper or film designed to last a long time, or digital storage options, like cloud storage or external hard drives.
On the other hand, every time you migrate your current data to a newer format to preserve it for a few more years, it might degrade in some way that won’t become apparent until someone tries to access it someday.
Hackers, malware, and natural disasters can all threaten your stored data, so it’s important to implement strong security measures to protect your information and to store the media in an environment that’s both safe for that media and offers long-term stability.
Cold Storage vs. Hot Data
In data storage parlance, “cold” storage refers to how rarely accessed data is stored. This is usually data kept for compliance or other necessary record-keeping irrelevant to day-to-day business.
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