Discussion

By Robert Arena on Jul 30, 2014

This subject has a nice thread on MacInTouch and some people have also made the case for paper, mentioning the longevity of the Dead Sea scrolls. There, many people offer their ideas regarding the preservation of data and it is definitely worth a read. Mr. Eastman’s article is light and topical. One of the commenters does refer to the mData DVD and BluRay discs which are offered as archival. One has to be careful in the selection of burner and disc manufacturer. We have used Kodak and Mitsui gold CD discs, the oldest is 1989. So far, so good. Silver discs were only used for customer transfer; now the thumb drive rules. Nonetheless, it is an important topic.

By Michael Reidy on Jul 30, 2014

While the paper may still be there (somewhere), to most people working in banks or insurance companies, "it's been archived" is the same as "it's been shredded." They don't understand what archiving is, or where the archives are, let alone how to access them.

Similarly, mergers and acquisitons, staff restructuring and computer systems replacements have left a terrifying amount of digital financial information lost, destroyed or inaccessible.

By Joe Olivo on Jul 30, 2014

Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal had an article today (http://online.wsj.com/articles/kodak-movie-film-at-deaths-door-gets-a-reprieve-1406674752)that talks about the same thing with movie film. It seems that Kodak was going to close the door on its film business. This spooked the major Hollywood studios as film is still the best way to preserve movies in the digital age. The studios guaranteed Kodak that they would purchase a certain volume of film, even if they wind up not using it. Maybe we can get our print clients to do the same?