Digital Obsolescence
SAN Recovery - Digital Obsolescence
Digital obsolescence refers to a situation when the digital data stored in a digital media is no longer accessible. This situation occurs because either the hardware such as the storage media or the driver, or the software that runs on it is no longer available.
The primary reason for digital obsolescence is the proliferation of different kinds of hardware, modes of digital encoding, operating systems and different types of general or specialized software. Even old versions of programs developed by the same company may face digital obsolescence because they are not usable on the new platform. For example, older versions of Microsoft Works cannot be run on Microsoft Windows 2000 or later.
Solution
Digital obsolescence has been discussed over years among professionals specializing in archiving technologies; however, they could not find an effective solution except the forward-migration of files and information to the latest data storage standards.
Experts suggest that all new file formats should be made backward compatible, upgraded regularly and ideally of open format. The National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage suggests the following as de facto formats, which are unlikely to be rendered obsolete in the near future. They are uncompressed TIFF and PDF for images, and ASCII and RTF for text.
Intentional Obsolescence
Intentional obsolescence refers to deliberate use of obsolete technologies to prevent data intrusion. This strategy is known as security through obsolescence.
