Maintaining data for long periods of time is doable. The process of carrying the data over onto newer generations of media (generally tape for long-term archives) and checking for potential issues is inconvenient and time consuming, but possible. However, stipulations such as e-discovery that place time constraints on the recoverability of data for civil litigations have created an environment that’s difficult to maintain. e-discovery has essentially taken a grossly inefficient process and multiplied its complexity.
Storage Evolution
Throughout the steady march of compliance in the storage industry, storage technology itself has advanced and evolved to keep up with growing demands. Although compliance has added layers of complexity, mere economic development has resulted in massive amounts of new data and data types.
The evolution of storage technology and media has been well documented. Each stage of development for emergent technologies has looked to the future for guidance. For disk, the goals were increased performance over tape and enhancements to related processes such as backup and disaster recovery. For solid-state storage, drivers included enhanced reliability, performance and environmental impact over both tape and disk.
Future Storage Mediums
Although solid-state technology is still young, the industry is already looking beyond it to predict its replacement: a technology that will deliver even greater benefits to performance, cost, security and reliability.