The future of optical disk storage technology

In today's document management industry, low cost, high-capacity storage and timely access to data are the most important goals. in the past, paper played a huge role, because most documents originated In this format. As paper production increased, organizations were forced to manage storage space carefully, while keeping documents available for retrieval. Microfiche has permitted the reduction of storage space and cost (one microfiche = 250-450 pages). While this approach Is well-suited for long-term storage and risk management, microfiche remains undesirable for rapid retrieval. To handle this area, various forms of optical medium, such as CD-ROM, MO, WORM and DVD-Recordable technology, have emerged in the marketplace. These formats have become widely used, because of their high data density, low cost, and fast access time. CD-ROM has generally been targeted at the personal computer and the general distribution of stored documentation, multimedia, software and catalogues etc. It has been perceived as being deficient for high volume usage such as network data sharing, optical drive technology, file systems and directory caches etc. However, during the last few years, CD technology has seen significant advances: Improving the capacity; the optical drives (faster access time: high data transfer rate in multiple-platforms): CD-Server with high capacity jukeboxes for remote access to the central system: and including the shift from CD-ROM to DVD-Recordable. These features allow DVD, the future CD generation, to create a wide variety of other applications not possible before. Such characteristics lead many to believe that DVD-Recordable will soon challenge WORM media in network, Internet, and mainframe storage. In the not-so-distant future, new concepts of optical recording that boost higher data density rates and rapid access will be available to the public. Prototypes of holographic disks capable of storing 128 GB per disk (for digital holograms) with access times less than 100 microsecond already exist in some research laboratories. Another concept, called Near Field Recording, was recently mode available by Terastor Company. They contend this method maintains ten times more areal density than the leading technology.