Archiving: Finding Data In 2050

In 2050, it won't be a question of saving data, but how on earth to find it when you need it and then actually read it is the real question. Just like eight-track tapes from the 1970s, whatever digital storage medium you save your data to today will be obsolete in 2050, and most likely so will the file format or application you used to create the data. No single data management or storage vendor today has a good solution to help organizations solve the problem of building a long-term archive. In fact, most vendors exacerbate the issues with proprietary products and disruptive, manual upgrade paths. It's a tall order, but to ease the inevitable migration to new archiving technologies, use open, well-supported standards and keep a current index of all your data.