By contrast, 5.25 inch optical storage technology has been designed specifically for long-term electronic archives. With a media life of more than 50 years, it is an extremely stable and cost effective technology. The fact the 5.25 inch optical solutions are available in both Rewritable and Write Once formats is another major strength within archive environments. Many organisations use Write Once optical as the final link in their Chain of Trust since it provides best-case audit trail accountability for storage records and meets or exceeds government and industry archival storage regulations.

Just like a physical chain, the Chain of Trust for record archives consists of multiple interrelated links of equal importance. One weak link in the chain can jeopardise the trustworthiness of all records. Since individual requirements vary dramatically, the design for a Chain of Trust must begin with a clear understanding of the exact regulations and corporate standards that need to be met. With this in hand, the individual links can be forged and data trustworthiness can be established.




The Cohasset White Paper on Trustworthy Storage referenced in the second footnote is available for download from the Plasmon website - http://www.plasmon.com