Optical Discs for Archiving Applications? Optical Discs for Archiving? Choosing an Archive Media

Define your needs regarding: Longevity Accessibility Price Capacity

Longevity

Longevity of Various Media

500

400

300

Years 200

100

0

Optical Media Other Storage Types and Access Time

Storage Type Media Access Time Primary storage Computer memory Nanoseconds Secondary Storage Hard drives/Optical discs up to 1 second Tertiary Storage , Optical Jukebox 4–60 seconds Off-line Storage Tapes, Hard drives, minutes-hours Capacity vs Access Time

Source: World Technology Evaluation Center, Inc. Media Capacities/Cost of initial Purchase

Cost per GB

$0.05 $0.04 LTO Tape $0.03 Optical Disc $0.02 $0.01 Hard Disk $0.00 LTO Tape Optical Disc Hard Disk

Type Max Capacity Available Lowest Cost/GB

LTO Tape 3.2 TB (compressed) $0.022

Hard Disk 4 TB $0.047

Optical Disc 100 GB $0.031

*Cost/GB not necessarily based on largest capacity Selection Guide

Media Selection Scoreboard

Hard Linear Flash 1= Does Not Meet Criteria 3 = Fully Meets Criteria CD-R DVD-R Blu-Ray Disk Tape Memory

Longevity 3 3 3 1 1 1

Capacity 1 1 1 3 3 1

Viability (Error Correction) 3 3 3 2 3 2

Obsolescence 3 3 3 2 2 2

Cost 2 2 2 1 3 2

Susceptibility to Damage 3 3 3 3 2 1

Total 15 15 15 12 14 9 Pros And Cons Data Archiving on CD-R, DVD R or BD-R Media

.How long should Archive Grade Media last?

.What makes it “Archive Grade”?

.What is needed for best performance?

Archive Media: How long is long enough?

.Eventual migration to another media is inevitable

.Migration is expensive

.Keep your data on one media as long as possible.

.Start with media with the longest expected lifetime.

What makes it “Archive Grade” ?

.High Performance Recording Layer .Long-life Recording Layer .Oxidation Resistant .UV Resistant Factors That Affect Lifetime

Factors that affect disc life expectancy

 Type of reflective layer  Type of recording layer  Manufacturing quality  Condition of the disc  Quality of the recording  Handling and storage conditions All discs are not created equal: Pure Gold Reflective Layer

Disc failure often caused by reflective layer degradation.

Metal layer oxidization = unreadable disc

Gold never oxidizes

For CD-R and DVDR, MAM-A uses 99.99% pure gold Calculating the Lifetime of Optical discs

MAM-A uses ISO standards to test longevity:

ISO 18927-2002 for CD-R, ISO 10995 for DVD-R and Blu-ray. MAM-A DVD-R Longevity Longevity of MAM-A BD-R General Archiving Recommendations from NIST*

For archiving data on recordable discs, NIST recommends a gold metal reflective layer.*

*“Care and Handling of CDs and —A Guide for Librarians and Archivists” *National Institute of Standards and Technology Made in America

 MAM-A is the only US manufacturer of Recordable Discs

 ISO 9001:2008 Certified Reseller Margin

 Cost for MAM-A Silver Plus Gold Archival disc: $1.20

 Typical Selling Price: $2.00 No computer storage medium can be considered archival, irrespective of its physical longevity: technological obsolescence is inevitable and all media have limited life spans.

Source: National Archives Thank you!

Click on the link below to view the NIST Archiving guide

“Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs—A Guide for Librarians and Archivists”

There is additional archiving information at MAM-A.com