On Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:11:12 -0500, "Ward, Stuart" <Wards AT BMCMASK DOT COM>
wrote:
>In the very near future I will need to put together a software and hardware
>proposal for data retention  of approximately 50 years due to FDA
>regulations encompassing the medical industry.
>
>My main question would be the type of media to use currently that has any
>kind of magneto retention life-span nearing or surpassing this.

Since no known media has magnetic media lifespans of 50 years, your
best bet is an environment that promotes moving files from one media
container to another on a periodic basis (with consistency checking to
insure good copying), so as to avoid the situation where sticktion,
dirt, media failure, or disaster causes data loss. 

It should also allow for concurrent connectivity to different media
types, allowing for gradual or immediate migration to new media types
as technology changes and improves. Again, this connectivity should
allow for consistency checks when moving from one type of media to
another.

Also, the system should allow for easy automated restoration of data
from media storage to staging systems so that administrators can
accomplish another major problem of technological
advancement--filesystem evolution. Restored data from old-style
filesystems, such as FAT, could be easily migrated to newer
filesystems like NTFS. Such migrated data should be easily moved back
onto fresh storage media.

Hey. Didn't I just describe TSM?

--
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)