Long term data storage is a really difficult problem. In the era of internet, a huge amount of information is available for people, but are still lacking efficient ways to store this information.

Computer Weekly published an interesting article pointing on the difficulty of long term data storage. According to the article, the problem is twofold, both software and hardware.

For example, information is stored in databases created with software. When a new version of that software is available, generally backwards compatibility is maintained, but will the newest versions still able to read databases created say 20 or 30 years ago? Probably not.

What about hardware issues? It's rather simple: burned optical media has not an unlimited durability, and the same is true for hard disk drives or flash memory. Holographic discs, even if they seem a promising technology, are still not proven enough to make previsions.

So, what is the best method for long term data storing? Whoever is interested, can freely discuss this item in our forum :)