Storage and access of the digital items created as a result of digitisation needs careful planning for the duration of the preservation project and beyond.

Technical obsolescence and rapid advances in storage technologies (size, cost, capacity, management etc.) mean that the digital archive is not a static entity based on one solution but is typically a continuously changing entity that consists of a mixed set of storage solutions and media types.

Technical obsolesence happens rapidly in such an archive and it is often the case that a specific mass storage system (e.g. a particular tape robot and tapes) will be come obsolete within 5 years. This is often because rapid advances in tape and storage technologies are made by technology suppliers which are not backwards compatible. Older products are rendered obsolete due to lack of demand and manufacturer support is discontinued. This means that migration to new solutions is ineviatable and needs to happen relatively frequently. Thankfully, migration is potentially far easier in a digital archive since data movement can be automated.

Instead of choosing one solution for the lifetime of the preservation project, the approach to take is to consider mass storage solutions as consumable items with a relatively short lifetime. Costly items of course, but consumable nonetheless!