Technical & IT Background
Infinite migration loop vs. neutral data format & standardized processes
The life cycle of applications and storage technologies hast to be considered by setting up a long term archiving and retrieval standard. Approximately every three years a change in the application technology and every ten years in the technology of storage and retrieval happen. In comparison with an archiving period of fifty up to one hundred years in the aerospace industry the technology life cycle plays a major role.
Besides the challenges caused by different technology life cycles the risk of data migration has to be considered. The use of a native CAD-format may lead to wrong or even no results when loading in a new generation of CAD-Systems.
All in all the data conversion into an open and standardized format following an also open and standardized process model is seen as the only efficient solution by meeting various use cases. From this point of view, archiving becomes much more than just safe storage; it is the substantial and operative support for all future engineering activities. In comparison to alternatives e.g. 2D drawings archived on microfilm or continuously 3D conversion it is less resource intensitive, enables independency from IT-vendors, allows traceability of changes of data model and guarentees a consistently retrievable data basis.