Allison Munsell

Digitization Specialist, Rights &  Reproduction

Albany Institute of History & Art
125 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY  12210
T:  (518) 463-4478 ext. 424
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www.albanyinstitute.org

From: The NDSA organization list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Krogh
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 3:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [NDSA-ALL] Story on CBS News

Kara,

I think that most of us would recommend magnetic storage over optical for primary storage. Optical can be a good part of a backup plan, especially good quality optical like the m-disc or MAM-A. (I am pleased to see that the m-disc now comes in Blu-ray, which makes it more workable.) This has long been a pillar of 3-2-1 Backup (3 copies, 2 media types, 1 stored offsite.) It may also be useful for archived data, as long as one is mindful of the "tech debt" one is incurring in future migrations.

This landscape is changing, with good low-cost cloud and very high-capacity spinning disk, but "archival" optical has not yet become obsolete.

Magnetic media requires more frequent migration and verification, as well as a typically higher operating costs. 

I'd also point out that optical is a part of some very wealthy and sophisticated operations. 

In the last year Facebook has announced that it has built large cold storage on optical disc arrays.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2092420/facebook-puts-10000-bluray-discs-in-lowpower-storage-system.html

And some people speculate that Amazon Glacier is built on optical storage. 

http://storagemojo.com/2014/04/25/amazons-glacier-secret-bdxl/

Not cut and dried, I think.

In the end, storage is a process, not a place you put stuff. Optical can be part of that process.

Peter