The growth of more technologically advanced IT systems and electronic databases in companies including personal consumers signals the increasing importance of data backup. Data storage equipment has come to occupy a crucial place in reading, writing and copying data. Data storage devices have evolved with the times – starting with the removable hard disk, floppy disk, zip drives and recently the CD and DVD. Today, there are many diverse types of data recording media available in the market. The RAID - Redundant Array of Independent Disk - system is a popular removable storage media, while data storage removable tape drives of LTO and Blu-ray – BD, are affordable, mobile and reliable.
Each data storage media has its own niche audience. CD and DVD are still in demand even as new and more technologically advanced data storage devices of BD-R enter the market. The DVD came into existence in the early 1990s as a large storage medium. Its magnetic double layering and large storage capacity going up to 4.7GB made it an attractive data backup device in the market. Soon, the DVD-RAM and the CD were introduced to meet the changing demands of data storage. IT experts argue that it is not possible for CDs and DVDs to go out of vogue as they offer infinite advantages:
- Cost-effective
- Reliable with data security mechanisms – boosting of data privacy
- High storage capacity
- Physically robust requiring low maintenance and care. This means that a CD or DVD can be exposed to harsh climatic changes with none or minimal amount of data loss. In addition, these devices can be handled roughly, moved or even scratched.
Thus, the role and importance of CD and DVD as vital data backup are still existent. IT professionals predict that the traditional optical data storage technology which initially began with floppy disks and then changed to CD-R and DVD will merely become more refined and sophisticated to meet futuristic demands and needs of data storage. Optical storage media have been a part of the computer industry for nearly 25 years. It is defined as a professional data archival technology which first introduced the 12-inch format and later the 5.25-inch cartridge. Today, the optical storage industry is in the throes of a major technology shift changing its traditional equipment to the modern data storage equipment of laser technology. The industry is transforming the traditional CD and DVD i.e. from lower density red lasers to a higher density blue laser. New blue laser-based products use the same fundamental technology of the original, traditional CD and DVD. The main difference is that the blue laser technology offers shorter wavelength increasing media capacity.
The CD and DVD market is huge dominated by consumer demand for audio, video and computer games. Blue laser technology will simply enhance and hone the storage function and capacity of the traditional CD and DVD in the personal consumer market. This will enable the continuity of the CD and DVD market in cognizance with new media applications of HDTV. Further, consumer-oriented blue laser technology will possess optimal read/ write strategies, error correction and high-speed performance facilities. In short, blue laser technology will enable a new and more technologically advanced format of CD and DVD. These devices of optical data storage media will be optimised for audio and video applications. They will be mass-manufactured for cost-sensitive and low-duty cycle consumer requirements. This will also reduce the threat of recycling and consequent data loss.
The professional optical storage media drive using blue laser can be used on innumerable diverse applications and servers making it the ideal data backup solution for commercial enterprises. Optical drives used in business for archiving purposes use blue laser ultra density optical technology --UDO. UDO offers a 30GB media capacity in rewritable and true write-once media formats.
UDO Features:
- High performance rate – allows rapid archiving of data coupled with speedy data retrieval
- Great storage capacity
- Long-term product continuity – it can be used many times for an infinite period of time
- Enables write-once media recording – meaning that once saved, it does not allow easy access by any individual other than original user. It is equipped with an inbuilt data locking and security identification system. This prevents data hacking and potential loss of data privacy.
- This technology is backward-compatible indicating that it is compatible with used, old and different applications, networks and drives.
Blue laser optical storage is the future for the data storage industry. Companies and personal users are opting for optical storage media to embrace the concepts of full and complete data protection.