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Long-term data storage raises problems of backwards compatibility, and format obsolescence. Arif Mohammed finds out how organisations at the cutting edge are getting a grip on the challenge
KEY POINTS
* Many organisations face the challenge of storing documents for up to 100 years
* British Library is using a secure storage system with digital document signing
* Ordnance Survey has a system to create and maintain its data images "forever"
* Storage association predicts a long-term information retention crisis
Organisations increasingly need to retain digital documents indefinitely for legal, administrative or historical purposes, and many IT managers are grappling with how to preserve electronic documents and information for 100 years or more.
Some of the issues they face include estimating the lifespan of storage materials, the potential obsolescence of file formats, backwards compatibility with applications and operating systems, and whether methods of tagging data will still work in the future.
Libraries, media firms, local government and insurers are among the organisations investigating the implications of long-term storage.
Case study: British Library
The British Library is leading the field in research into long-term storage, being an organisation with a legal right, and an obligation, to store copies of every public document and many electronic files.
The library is pioneering longterm digital storage and archiving technologies in Europe, and it is looking beyond 100 years, says Roderic Parker, communications officer of the Digital Object Management programme at the British Library.
"As a national library, we have a duty to preserve particular documents, and we have paper materials that date back to the dawn of written documents," he says.
The British Library has a team of 12 full-time experts, and 12 more staff involved in the library's various storage and archiving projects. The team is wrestling with challenges such as technology obsolescence, selecting the right storage media, hardware compatibility, the longevity of operating systems, obsolescence of the formatting and structure, and document security.
"We are having to decide how many versions of how many word processors we use - and how to retain computer aided design files, photographic images, and sound and media files. Everything has challenges, but we have so far been concentrating on building a secure storage system," says Parker.
In July 2007, the...