Re[2]: Is it just me
- From: Peter Robson <pgro@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Carel-Jan Engel <cjpengel.dbalert@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 10:02:58 +0100
>> If you ever saw a system that was write-mostly over the long term, then
>> there's data going in that's never coming out. You'd have to wonder why
>> someone would pay money to store things that are never retrieved.>>
This statement has been repeated several times in the thread now, and
I cannot let it go unchallenged any longer.
In essence, where a situation like this does exist, then yes, some
fairly stern questions need to be asked. But it is very dangerous to
generalise from the particular.
For example - do you justify the books held in a library on the basis
of the frequency with which they are accessed?
In the digital environment - what about audit trailing sensitive
transactions which one hopes will never have to be retrieved, but must
always be retained just in case...
In the BGS, we are charged by gov't to hold geological data (in both
digital and analogue form) which goes back hundreds of years. Some of
this stuff hasn't been accessed for years. Should we junk it? In the
days of Mrs Thatcher, the answer was an emphatic 'yes', and moves
commenced to do just this. Thank goodness sense prevailed before any
lasting damage was done, but nevertheless we did lose some
irreplaceable data.
In the scientific world, the case for long term data retention, to the
extent that there is a net inflow of data, is unassailable.
As above - be careful out there....
peter
edinburgh
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