Plasmon UDO Media

Professional Archive Media

Plasmon UDO Media Overview

Today’s data archives demand increased flexibility to comply with growing regulations for record retention and disposition, to control operational risk, to minimise legal liability and fully exploit information assets. Plasmon meets this need for flexibility with a range of UDO Write Once and Rewritable media formats specifically designed for diverse archive requirements.

Thousands of organisations worldwide have chosen UDO for the archival storage of their valuable records because it meets both their technical and financial requirements. UDO provides unmatched media longevity and unquestioned record authenticity at a very low Total Cost of Ownership.

With compelling benefits over magnetic disk and tape-based archives, UDO offers the added advantage of three media formats to meet the evolving demands of professional archives.

All three UDO media formats are available in 30GB and 60GB media capacities. The UDO Archive Appliance, G-Series libraries and the UDO desktop drives support the different UDO media formats, giving organisations the ability to implement a scalable and truly flexible archival storage strategy.

Rewritable Media

UDO Rewritable media uses a Phase Change recording surface that allow data to be erased and rewritten, recapturing media capacity.

Rewritable UDO media is typically used in archive applications where the stability and longevity of optical media is important, but the archive records change frequently. In these environments the archive may be less formally managed and used to off-load static data from the primary disk storage with the added benefit of being able to reuse the media capacity in the future. UDO Rewritable media is ideal for small office and departmental applications or in larger unstructured archives that are not subject to specific regulatory or corporate standards.

True Write Once Media

UDO True Write Once media uses a totally different Phase Change recording surface than the Rewritable media. Unlike Rewritable media, the WORM (Write Once Read Many) recording surface cannot be erased or altered, giving True Write Once media the highest possible record authenticity. This level of data integrity cannot be matched by magnetic disk or tape technologies using WORM emulation.

True Write Once optical media has a very long and successful history with a wide range of applications across many industries. Common uses of True Write Once media include medical, financial, industrial and cultural applications that have long or indefinite record retention periods with a need for unquestioned record authenticity to comply with regulations.

Compliant Write Once Media

UDO Compliant Write Once media has the same operational properties as True Write Once media with one important difference. Through the use of a unique  shred operation, individual records written to Compliant Write Once media can be destroyed after their retention period expires.

The shred function is controlled at an application level and operates only on Compliant Write Once media. It is a fully verified process and unlike deleting data on magnetic disk, the shred operation on UDO media leaves no residual traces of previously written data. The process of physically destroying records on magnetic disk is awkward and time consuming and it is not possible on magnetic tape.

The driving requirement behind the use of Compliant Write Once is risk management and compliance. Some regulations require that records be physically destroyed when the retention period expires or when mandated by the organization or customer. The proper disposition of records can dramatically reduce political and financial liability as organizations seek to legally contain their disclosure obligation. Shredding data on Compliant Write Once media is fast and provides the highest possible standard for absolute data destruction.

The attributes of Write Once authenticity and absolute data destruction make UDO Compliant Write Once media ideal for ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) environments, email archiving applications and the controlled storage of regulated records.

UDO Specifications

Plasmon UDO media has been certified by ISO, IEC and ECMA International. The ECMA- 350 UDO media standard was published in December 2003 and adopted by ISO/IEC in July 2004 as International Standard ISO/IEC 17345. ECMA-350 can be downloaded free of charge on the ECMA International website. ISO/IEC 17345 is available free of charge on the ITTF (ISO/IEC Information Technology Task Force) website.

Barcoded Media

UDO media can be ordered with barcode labels for the automated identification and tracking of individual pieces of media. Barcoded media can be used in G-Series libraries that have an optional barcode reader installed. Barcoded UDO media is mandatory for all UDO Archive Appliance configurations.

Media Properties

Typical Applications

Provides unmatched media longevity

Archive records subject to periodic change

Permits the deletion and modification of records

No specific requirements for record authenticity

Allows media space from deleted records to be recaptured and re-used

Short term or informally managed record retention periods

Media Properties

Typical Applications

Provides unmatched media longevity

Static and unchanging archive records

Prevents the deletion and modification of records

No specific requirements for record authenticity

Indefinite or undefined record retention periods

Media Properties

Typical Applications

Provides unmatched media longevity

Static and unchanging archive records

Prevents the modification of records

Organisational requirement to prove record authenticity

Permits the destruction of individual records

Liability or requirements for the physical destruction of records at end-of-life

Defined and carefully managed record retention periods

UDO Media Specification Summary

Media Capacity UDO2

60GB (Double Sided)

Media Capacity UDO1

30GB (Double Sided)

Sector Size

8KB

Cartridge Size

5.25 inch

Recording Layer

Phase Change

Media Life

100 + years

Rewrite cycles

10,000 (Rewritable media)

Certification

ISO/IEC 17345, ECMA-350

Plasmon UDO Media Codes

Write Once

Write Once Barcoded

Rewritable

Rewritable Barcoded

Compliant Write Once

Compliant Write Once Barcoded

UDO30WO

UDO30WORW

UDO30RW

UDO30RWBAR

UDO30CW

UDO30CWBAR

UDO60WO

UDO60WORW

UDO60RW

UDO60RWBAR

UDO60CW

UDO60CWBAR