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What things should be considered
when selecting an imaging system?
Selecting
the right document imaging system can be an exciting task. There
are many aspects to consider to make sure it fits your organization's
needs. Using the expertise gathered from over twelve years of creating
document imaging solutions for our customers, we've assembled a
list of things to look for, including some essentials and some nice
extras.
Storage
Whether
you are the keeper of the public record or just storing office correspondence,
a solid storage system is a must. Even electronic images need a place
to reside, and for the purposes of imaging, this place needs to be
long-term, expandable and reliable.
There are many different storage media available for imaging. Each
one has its own strengths and weaknesses. For an imaging system, a
good storage system must encompass changing technologies, increasing
numbers of document volumes and the tests of time. Selecting the right
medium depends on your needs and your budget.
In short, there are five storage options.
- Magnetic
Media
- Magneto-Optical
Storage
- Compact
Disks
- DVDs
- WORM
Magnetic
Media
With the fast response times and dramatic drops in hard drive prices,
magnetic media such as hard drives or RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive
Disks) systems are becoming a popular choice for storage of document
images. These devices are relatively inexpensive and can be linked
together to store large numbers of documents. In addition, magnetic
media provides the fastest response time. (The time it takes to
store and retrieve a document.) The problem with magnetic media
is that while inexpensive, they still cost more than optical media
and their moving parts are subject to mechanical failure. That's
why computer personnel regularly schedule backups of hard drives:
If data is erased or damaged, it can easily be restored from backup.
Magneto-Optical
Storage
With the drops in hard drive prices, the attractions of magneto-optical
storage are quickly fading. Magnetic Optical (MO) disks are reliable
and can store large amounts of data. In addition, MO disks can be
placed in a jukebox that can hold over a hundred disks at a time.
MO technology is slower and more expensive than large hard drives.
The drawbacks of MO technology include the expense and fragile nature
of the media: As with magnetic drives, the information is written
on a spinning platter, which can be erased or damaged. This type
of damage would require restoration from backup.
Compact
Disks
Most people are familiar with CDs from music and data disks available
at many retail outlets. CDs offer a safe and reliable media that
can provide long-term storage for images, in some cases up to 100
years. Disks can also be stored in jukeboxes that can hold 500 CDs
at a time. Furthermore, CDs do not require any specialized hardware
or software to retrieve information. The drawback with CDs is their
limited storage capacity: A standard CD can only hold around 12,000
pages of documents. CD jukeboxes and towers make it more convenient
to store large number of documents on large numbers of CDs.
DVDs
Visually similar to CDs, these disks offer the same storage capacity
of a MO disk without using moving parts in the media or requiring
special software for decoding. With the life expectancy of CDs,
DVD represents the best long-term option for reliable document imaging
storage. The drawback to this media is its high cost. Currently,
affordable DVD recorders do not exist, but all indications are that
the industry will make DVD available for mass usage within twelve
months. When they are, they will probably make MO disks outdated.
WORM
The final storage medium is WORM (Write Once Read Many). This media
format is not readily available and requires specialized hardware
and software to operate. Because of the limited number of companies
that provide materials and support for WORM technology, it is not
highly recommended. The most important thing to remember is that
a good document imaging system must be able to use any media format
currently available - as well as those on the horizon - to provide
long term document storage.
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