Infinite File Life Advances Data Protection.

Advanced Digital Information Corporation recently introduced long-term data protection utility called Infinite File Life (IFL), which is included in the release of the company's AMASS for Unix storage management software. The protection utility helps lower the cost of protecting digital asset archives by migrating files on media to media before data is lost due to age or wear.

AMASS software tests media on a schedule, tracks read/write error rates, and renews the files by writing them to media. It is designed for use by organizations in fields that require records retention, including banks, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies, and media companies.

"Protecting assets over a time period is a problem," explained Bill Britts, executive vice president of sales and marketing at ADIC. "Even though there are media types that can preserve data for long times--20 to 50 years--they are expensive, their capacities haven't kept up with data volume and they don't solve the problem of how to read data in the future. [The new] technology solves the data integrity problem--by focusing on preserving the information instead of the media itself. [The technology] will let users employ tape technology for storing their important digital assets, safe in the knowledge that the data can be protected, even through generations of media technology. [It] represents an advance for the industry, one that we plan to integrate into ADIC storage management software solutions."