The use of optical storage continues to grow at an incredible pace, spurred on by the flexibility, reliability and affordability of the technology. Most of us are familiar with optical technology such as CD-ROM, but writable (or magneto) optical terms such as rewritable optical and WORM, may be foreign. Rewritable optical devices use media that allows data to be written repeatedly, while WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) technology writes data permanently to disk. These devices are currently sold as stand-alone items or as jukeboxes. Jukeboxes are storage units with built-in robotics to automate access to hundreds of pieces of media and numerous optical drives.
The continuing development of optical technology has created limitless application possibilities. Migration software frees up hard disk space by moving unused data to secure optical devices for storage and retrieval. Optical storage solutions are used in a wide variety of applications such as file archiving, document imaging, records retention, pre-press graphics, CAD/CAM and many more.
Approaching hard-disk speeds
Optical performance is rapidly approaching hard disk speeds. Random access means no sequential searches, providing direct access to files. Optical access speeds are up to 100 times faster than tape and several times faster than CD-ROM. With new direct overwrite technology, optical disks double their previous write times through eliminating the drive's erase cycle.
Room to grow
Optical solutions provide a variety of storage capacities and media sizes, with room to expand and enlarge your system when requirements change. Drive capacities range from 640MB 3½-inch drives to 2.6GB 5¼-inch drives. 12" drives provide a nominal capacity of 12 GB per disk. Since optical disks are removable, media from stand-alone drives can be placed in jukeboxes for near on-line storage. You will never run out of storage space!
Reliable media provides long data life
Optical solutions are the most reliable of any removable storage media. Since the only thing that touches the media is the laser, it is the most durable way to store and archive data. Writable optical is superior to paper, microfiche and tape storage, all of which suffer data degradation and possible damage through time and natural elements. Magneto optical technology makes writable optical storage unique because data can not be damaged by shock or magnetic fields. Rewritable optical media can be written to over 10,000,000 times and remains readable for decades with no required media maintenance.
