By Roy Worthington
Today's options for information distribution, storage and retrieval-on both the networked and personal level-are more varied than ever before.
Technological advances allow today's hard drives to offer tremendous capacity, while flash memory offers incredible convenience and portability. Indeed, the emerging acceptance of a standard platform for network and personal computing, along with the introduction of the CD, has had a permanent effect on print's dominance of data storage and transmission.
Optical disks (CDs and DVDs) can store the equivalent of thousands of volumes in document pages, text, graphics, images and video. Although data stored on such media can be printed out, in order to make large quantities of information readily available, the most cost-effective means is to provide access via electronic data networks (LANs) for communication within an organization, or over the Internet.
As any system integrator or IT professional knows, network security can be challenging. The very qualities that make networks appealing can be problematic when access needs to be restricted to a select few. And, although physical media are not 100 percent secure, they do offer direct control over distribution, can be destroyed if necessary, and are usable when network access is unavailable. For some applications (video, for example), remote network access is not always a viable option. If you want to archive and distribute something like training videos or presentations, DVDs will almost always be the preferred medium. When large amounts of data or sensitive content are involved, optical disks are almost always the preferred solution, from convenience to cost.
There are essentially three main ways to producing custom CDs and DVDs: by using a built-in CD or DVD in a PC; by using an outside duplicating service; or in-house, using disk duplicating machines. Using a PC is quite acceptable for small or personal jobs, but can be quite inefficient for medium- or large-volume applications. Outside duplicating services are an attractive and cost-effective option for large jobs, but if you tend to have frequent need for duplication or any need for data security, your best option is dedicated in-house hardware.
Here's an example of the security issue. The high-speed duplicators used by duplicating services burn data to CD or DVD from internal hard drives. If you supply a master CD, the duplicator will copy an image of that disk to the hard drive and burn it to multiple CD-Rs. That data is then available to anyone who has access to that machine. Unless the service frequently purges data after jobs are completed, it may remain available for a long time, and could, in the worst case scenario, accidentally be distributed to a third party.
Government agencies, banks and corporations are organizations that absolutely cannot afford to put their confidential data at that kind of risk. For this reason, as well as cost, there has been a growing trend toward in-house disk duplication.
Security can still be problematic. Imagine a duplicator with sensitive information permanently loaded onto its hard drive. Although efficient, it's similar to storing financial records in the memory of a photocopier. As a result, the latest generation of duplication products features a solution: high-capacity hard drives that can be removed and stored in a secure location, combining maximum convenience with maximum security. Approximately 200 CDs worth of data can be stored on a single hard drive for on-demand, high-speed transfer to optical disks. Yet At the same time, that data can be physically secured, either on-site or off-site, from unauthorized access.
Although security should be the priority for integrators when choosing a CD or DVD duplication products, the cost, capacity, speed, labeling capacity, and network or PC interfaces, are also important factors. However, where data security is a concern, a removable hard drive is a must-have feature, providing the "ultimate backup" for data, and peace of mind for all concerned.
About the Author:
Roy Worthington is the president of Octave Systems.
Based in Campbell, California, Octave Systems is a leading distributor of CD and DVD duplicators, printers and other related equipment. Founded in 1984 on the philosophy that data capture, storage and duplication should be easily accessible for a wide range of businesses, Octave Systems, Inc. has become one of the leading forces in the industry.
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More About Roy W: For further information or to purchase prodcuts please contact us at 1-800-626-8539 or visit www.octave.com/
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