We’ve discussed the importance of data redundancy at length on TechClicker.  As our lives and memories become increasingly digital, the importance of insuring their preservation is more important than ever.  While computer errors and viruses make it easier than ever to annihilate entire collections of family photos, videos, important documents, or enterprise data, the technology available to backup and preserve this data in the relative short term is also simpler and easier to use than it was just a few years ago.

But what data preservation options are available in the long term, typically greater than 15 years?  NAS devices offer excellent short term data redundancy, but their magnetic media based hard drives typically only offer 5-7 year MTBF rates.  While RAID configurations can protect against failures within the array, the foundation of the technology is still inherently unsuited for long term storage.  The dyes used in burned optical CD/DVD media, often misunderstood as permanent, will irreparably degrade (), thus destroying the data contained on the disk..

Remember the old adage “It’s written in stone”?  Carrying a connotation of permanence and irreversibility, the phrase’s ubiquity rests on its foundation of truth.  When information is carved into stone (e.g. hieroglyphs, the Rosetta stone, and epithets)  it lasts far longer than the relatively short span of a human lifetime.  Now, a company called Cranberry is offering its DiamonDisc which, with “no adhesive layers, dye layer or reflective layer to deteriorate”, can store data almost indefinitely in the same format as a standard DVD.  The disk is made of a proprietary clear synthetic stone with “diamond-like surface”.  The company uses a high-intensity laser to permanently etch data onto the disk.

While one could pay $5000 for a “burner” capable of writing data to Cranberry’s 4.7GB DiamonDiscs, the company offers data backup services whereby data can be submitted to Cranberry online to be archived onto the discs.  The service costs $35 for the first disc and $30 for each additional disk…a fair price for everlasting data storage.

[Via:  CrunchGear]