Future Proofing Your Data....continued

Emulation - new for old Emulation is the creation of new technology to run old programmes, the intention being to run the original software on new hardware. The disadvantages are:

· The concept is, for the time being, theoretical. In practice, it has not worked successfully in a digital imaging environment.

· Different systems will need their own emulation parameters, this means that, when a new system is introduced, an emulation programme has to be developed for it. Success is not guaranteed.

Integration - using a complementary technology Integration uses a complementary technology to ensure longevity of digital information. More commonly known as Integrated Imaging it involves storing the digital images on a permanent medium such as silver microfilm, either at the time of creation or when images are no longer "lives" and can be consigned to an archive. Microfilm has the advantage that it is both eyereadable (so you do not need technology to read it) and it has an internationally accepted life expectancy of 500 years.

The Microfilm Advantages So you can wave goodbye to migration and keep costs down. But the principal advantage is that it meets all government and judicial compliance standards.

Recent technology has enabled us to copy and/or move digital images to microfilm and vice versa, making this option not only secure for generations to come but as flexible as you like for today.