Optical disc technology continues to be an essential part of  consumer and enterprise archiving strategies. The long shelf life, high capacity and local nature of formats such as Blu-ray Discs mean that professionals and businesses can depend on optical storage to keep data from videos, photos and large files safe for years. Compared to alternatives like cloud services – which are almost unusable without a strong network connection – and magnetic HDDs and tape, Blu-ray recordable media is much more stable and easier to access.

With DIGISTOR REWIND, consumers can create a Blu-ray archive of their important files and make sure that nothing gets lost. A simple setup of REWIND, a Blu-ray burner and recordable discs is all that users need to create comprehensive data backups. Because DIGISTOR Blu-ray Discs are available in capacities up to 100 GB BDXL, they can accommodate even the largest file collection, and REWIND ensures that data is properly written to multiple discs as needed.

Backing up to Blu-Ray equals lower consumer costs and risks
Blu-ray is the ideal solution to modern consumer backup needs because it can reliably store large quantities of data without requiring a network service. In a post for troubleshooters.com, Linux expert Steve Litt explained how Blu-ray Discs had become his medium of choice for backup.

“In 1989, all my data would back up to about 20 floppies That’s about 30 MB,” explained Litt. “Today my data fills 24/25 of a Blu-Ray. That’s 24 GB. Different procedures, and different media, must be used.”

Moreover, optical discs are preferable to cloud-based backup because they subject consumers to far less risk. Litt highlighted some of the dangers of putting all of one’s eggs in the cloud basket, such as increased exposure to cybercriminal interception, unwanted surveillance and rising fees.

Additionally, depending on cloud storage can place users into a gray area in terms of whether the provider is liable for lost or compromised data. Using Blu-ray is much simpler and more dependable.

Blu-ray provides dependable long-term storage of cold data
Like consumers, enterprises have much to gain from data archiving solutions that leverage Blu-ray. An optical disc appliance such as the DIGISTOR Enterprise Archive keeps terabytes of data secure over the long term.

In a piece for IT Business Net, Miles Weston analyzed the different storage paradigms needed for managing frequently and seldomly accessed information. Since data preservation requires that content and metadata stay the same for up to 50 years, Blu-ray archive solutions, with their exceptional durability and capacity, are a perfect match.

“[S]eldom accessed data can be easily mirrored to an optical preservation solution that will ensure the content and valuable metadata is securely stored for 50 years or more, while still providing data retrieval in minutes, rather than hours,” explained Weston. “Furthermore, because write-once read-many optical, such as Blu-ray Disc is a permanent media, content cannot be destroyed or altered, even if security barriers are hacked or a disaster destroys the data center, the data preserved will be the data retrieved.”