The media considerations for
archiving are varied. The most fundamental
consideration is readability -- the media must be readable over
the course of years, even decades. Tapes must be error free and
hard drives must power up and spin successfully after sitting on
a shelf for years. Proper media vaulting involves issues, like
appropriate temperature, humidity and physical security. The
vendor is always a good place to start with tips and best
practices for long-term media storage.
In addition, there must be a migration plan to accommodate the
evolution of storage technologies. For example, a DLT tape might be
perfectly readable for 20 years, but if you move to LTO-4 tapes in
a few years, you'll still need to make a provision for reading the
DLT tapes or migrate the DLT tapes to LTO-4 -- and do it all with a
minimum of downtime. Ultimately, it's not just about keeping the
media, but also keeping the hardware and software to ensure
recoverability later on. Future migration is an issue that is often
ignored by vendors, so it's worth a careful conversation before
making any acquisition decisions.
Go back to the beginning of the
File Archiving FAQ Guide.