A peek into the future

As the digital explosion continues – reports suggest the digital universe is doubling every two years – the challenges of keeping information readable for future generations is only going to grow.

Here are some of the biggest challenges businesses could face:

Internet of Things

As machines, hardware and even every-day objects begin to ‘talk’ to each other and interact there will be plenty of benefits for business, but also a huge amount of new data created. Deciding what needs to be kept will be a challenge – and then preserving it another dilemma.

3D documents

The growing popularity of 3D printing and 3D documents will test the digital preservation systems of many businesses.

Video

It is already becoming increasingly important to include plans for video in any digital preservation system. But many businesses still don’t think of it as ‘data’. This will have to change.

Emails

Very few businesses include emails in their digital preservation plans but this may well come back to haunt them. A lot of vital information is still sent by email, including attachments which need to be preserved.

Apps

As business moves away from email in future, the use of other communication tools and apps will present another data burst.