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Defining archival storage

Defining archival storage

Oct 03, 2011

Archival Storage is a secure system for maintaining digital objects within a digital storage environment; this system ensures the reliability & authenticity of the objects, and enduring access to those objects over time, by meeting standard requirements (detailed below).

Digital objects: A data structure whose principal components are digital material, or a set of bit sequences.

Digital storage environment:  A digital storage environment employs a storage medium (or media) in which data is stored in a digital format. A storage medium is any technology (including storage devices and materials) that is used to store and retrieve data.  Digital storage environments can be dark, open, or hybrid (dim). 

Examples of storage media:

  • Magnetic tape

  • CD-ROM or DVD disks

  • Stand-alone hard drive

  • Network hard drive

  • Hybrid system such as Hierarchical Storage Management

Standard requirements of archival storage:

  • Security

    • physical environment

    • data access restrictions

  • Backup and/or replication

    • backup: manual/scheduled copy of data (snapshot in time)

    • replication: a continuous copy of data, where recovery is manual (high-performance)

    • mirroring: a continuous copy of data, where recovery is automatic (high-performance)

  • Redundancy

    • onsite and offsite

    • geographically distributed

  • Restoration/disaster recovery mechanisms

  • Monitoring & integrity audits

    • system and bit integrity checks

  • Stable environmental conditions

  • Scalability

  • Planning and support for storage media replacement and reformatting of data

  • Retention schedule/policies

Resources for existing definitions and guidelines: