Re: Endurance?
"Surely if it is archive you want a sort of drive where the data is just burned in and read only preferably with no, or minimal, moving parts?"
It depends entirely on the technology you're using. Regular writeable CDs and DVDs won't last too long, unless you use the gold based chemical CDs (claimed to be 100 years).
Once you get to flash or spinning rust drives, they're a lot more complex, and a lot more can go wrong.
The current consesus, is tape will last the longest, even if it has some downsides (data access time can be a bit rude if you store off-site). But the article is based entirely on the fact they want to access that stored data quickly too.
So their "best" suggestsion of Flash is suited for that useage case. If other factors are more important to you, such as raw data retetention life and cost, then as the saying goes, "your milage may vary".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
