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 Preserving Digital Information
If you have a digital imaging system, how will you
preserve the information to meet the company's long term retention
requirement and reduce the risk of loss from technology changes? The life of
a technology averages 3-6 years so migration will be mandatory for many
business documents and financial records.
Imaging systems are being installed to reduce the volume of paper that
flows around the office. More and more of the business communication and
reporting world is electronically based and exists only in an
electronic/digital form. A portion of this information has long term
retention that is required by government and regulatory laws, or corporate
practices. Most are using digital media for backup and storage. Without
securing this information, companies are vulnerable to severe losses or
continuation.
The problem is that digital technology is advancing rapidly on all fronts
with little regard for what came before. There is a growing mentality of
"disposable-digital components" that is developing. How quick were you to
throw away the 386 and 486 processors to move to Windows 95/98/NT because
PCs needed more processor power and more memory to run the new OS? How old
was that PC or the prior OS? 2 years? 4 years? Remember the effort you spent
in copying files off the old PC to load onto the new. Did the old PC and the
new PC have a common diskette drive to facilitate the move or did you have
to have a dual format diskette drive installed on one of the units to make
the migration? Finding a 5.25" floppy drive today is difficult And when you
were done, did you check all the files to assure that everything copied
correctly and is still accessible?
Businesses are constantly challenged to update their imaging systems to
keep pace with technology to avoid obsolescence issues. But with every
change and migration, there is a new risk that something can be overlooked,
lost or migrated with error. . For imaging systems there is an answer to
remove the risk associated with long term image and information storage. In
the course of capturing the image or during the first migration efforts,
make an eye-readable copy on microfilm. The film is good for 500 years, it
doesn't require any software or computer to read, and it doesn't have to be
migrated again.
The film copy is the insurance you need. It is reliable perfect for the
retention and preservation of images. This is the new role for microfilm: to
compliment image and information storage with low cost preservation. What
other media offers you the guarantee of both readability and accessibility
with images that need to be preserved? This is a classic case of "what's old
is new again." |
Preserving Digital
