Norwegian company Piql announced that it has developed a unique new digital preservation system that promises secure access to data for 500 years, while bringing photosensitive film into the digital era.
There is a worldwide concern about the lack of technologies suited for long-term preservation of digital data. Magnetic storage media is short lived and best used for backups, while security and privacy issues make the cloud unsuitable for the purpose. It is estimated that 5% of the world’s digital data requires secure, long-term preservation.
“Our goal has been to keep valuable digital data securely preserved and accessible for 500 years. Ensuring that the data cannot be modified or deleted is imperative in this context,” explained Rune Bjerkestrand, managing director of Piql AS. “A true preservation solution must also secure future access independent of availability to specific technologies or vendors.”
Photosensitive film has been used as a preservation medium for decades, by archives (microfilm) and by the large film studios in Hollywood. However the usage has been limited to preservation of analog images. Piql’s technology enables preservation of digital data on high-resolution film. The data is written on a preservation medium with proven long-term qualities and stored offline in physical form. Instructions on how to retrieve the data in the future is written in readable text on the film.
