We’re proud of our community. We’ve had dozens of you tell us stories about how you have taken the opportunity to teach others about the M-DISC and why it’s so special. Some of you have even schooled retail employees about the new standard for digital preservation. We are continually impressed by you and the outstanding level of knowledge in our community. Your opinions are highly regarded, both by us and by others, which is why we want to hear from you!

Read on for details on how to get your 10% discount.

We’re offering a 10% discount on your next order from our site (www.Millenniata.com) for sharing a review of your M-DISCs and compatible LG drive that you purchased. All you need to do is write up your thoughts and opinions, and post them on the corresponding product page at the website where you bought your drive and/or discs. After you are done posting, send us an email with a link to your review to support@Millenniata.com. Please include your name, also! After we verify your review we will provide you with a unique coupon code to receive a 10% discount on your next order at our site.

If you bought your drive & discs at a physical store location you can visit that retailer’s website and leave a review there. If there’s no way for you to leave your review with the retailer, or if you purchased through our site, you can send us your review by emailing support@Millenniata.com. Please include the name of your drive, what type of M-DISCs you’re using (if different from the standard discs), and your first & last name (we will only post your first name and an initial for your last name) along with your review. We will be posting these reviews on our site as well as posting some of them here! So let us all know what you think!

You can read the full newsletter by clicking here and below is an excerpt:

They lie in wait, silent sentinels from the era when personal computing first burst into our lives. Their secrets are inscrutable to the human eye. Often they have lived for years–decades even–under rough conditions that challenge their fundamentally delicate constitutions.

Floppy disks are both a bane and a blessing to digital preservationists. The blessing part centers on their potential for providing digital details from the past, especially from the period before widespread use of the internet to disseminate information. Depending on who used them for what they might contain significant literary manuscripts, rare data sets, revealing presentations or perhaps important family information. In any event, it’s quite possible that whatever is on a floppy is unique.

I wanted to take a moment and give you guys some feedback on your m-discs and the BP40NS20 LG drive I bought for my small business. First, I decided to give your discs a try because at the end of last year the unthinkable happened and my external hard drive quit working. I was worried about this same scenario happening because the drive was getting a bit old (if you can call 3 years old!!) and so I had backed up the most important files on a jump drive. I still lost some photos and files that I really wanted to save, but as sad as it is to say I’m glad I didn’t lose everything on that drive.

Needless to say, I was feeling a bit vulnerable after this because I have documents and files for my business that I absolutely cannot lose. So, I did extensive research on the subject of backing up data and eventually made the decision to use m-discs. To be honest I was a bit skeptical when I first read your site, but after watching the video where you guys dip a disc into liquid nitrogen I was sold. I emailed your customer support with a few questions about which drive I could use on my mac and they did a great job helping me pick out the right one—kudos to them!

I’ll admit, I couldn’t help but do some of my own stress tests after watching your videos when my drive and discs arrived. It’s really quite amazing how much abuse the disc can take and still be readable. Anyways, I had thoroughly convinced myself that the m-disc would suit my needs and so I started backing up all my business files and docs. 37 discs later, I’m incredibly happy with my decision. I’ve saved absolutely everything I want to keep to my discs and continue to burn them as I inevitably acquire more files. I store the discs in a good location in my office and I feel confident that I will always have them when I need them. So thank you for the peace of mind!

Brig T.
SlideBelts.com

NCIX

SPVF

LG Show in Germany

KSL 5

MTN

To begin, what are the perceived benefits of using tapes instead of upgrading to the newer technology?  The major thought that drives the use of tape is that it’s cheaper per-byte of data stored than using a disk system.  Though that may be true, the inherent weaknesses of magnetic tape does not allow for a “save it once and leave it until needed” archival system.  According to Gartner, “data up to one year old has a 10-15% failure rate, and the failure rate of data five or more years old is 40-45%.”  They further state that 34% of companies using tape never test those backups, and of the companies that did test, 77% found failures.  Referring to the vulnerability of tapes and specifically this issue of failure, Nexsan has said,

It is well understood that magnetic tape degrades over time. Temperature and humidity have a dramatic impact on shelf life. Ten degrees of temperature change can change the life of a tape by ten years or more. If an administrator stores tape in a room without a raised floor, there is a great danger temperature and humidity changes will accelerate the effects of thermal decay which, in turn, will destroy data in as little as five years…The design of the cartridge and the transport are critical to tape reliability as well. The enterprise class transports used today are in the 400,000-hour range. A well-managed cartridge (correctly controlled temperature and humidity), that is also a stagnant cartridge (i.e. a cartridge that has not been used), has a shelf life of around 20 years.

While the Library of Congress and the National Media Lab recommends,

For data having permanent value, storage areas should be kept at a constant 45 to 50° F or colder (do not store magnetic tapes below 46° F as it may cause lubrication separation from the tape binder) and 20 to 30% Relative Humidity (RH) for magnetic tapes (open reel and cassette) and 45 to 50% RH for all others. Environmental conditions must not fluctuate more that ±5° F or ±5% RH over a 24 hour period. Tape should be stored in dark areas except when being accessed, being sure to keep recordings away from UV sources (unshielded fluorescent tubes and sunlight).

The failure of tape and resulting data loss devastates small businesses.  Boston Computing Network states that 30% of businesses that incur a disaster and suffer data loss go out of business within a year, while 70% of those businesses will fail within five years.  A common industry solution, where firms have the available funds, is to make multiple copies so that if tapes do fail there are alternate backups.  Typically, a Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) backup rotation is implemented for this purpose.  This method is a hierarchical strategy where three differing backups occur according to a schedule, but usually will run daily (son), weekly (father) and monthly (grandfather) backups.  However, this redundancy comes at a massive cost to the firm due to the number of tapes required to backup the mountains of data.  Nexsan estimates the following numbers,

If an organization were backing up 42TB of primary disk, they would need 788 LTO-4 tapes over the course of a year. This assumes an 80% efficiency usage for each cartridge. At $38 per cartridge, the cost is $27,563. Using GFS the cost of storing 25 copies of the data would rise to $137,812. By comparison the cost of a second 42TB array as a backup target is in the range of $45,000.

Some professionals have adopted a hybrid backup system in order to combat the vulnerability of tape.  This tiered system utilizes a Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape approach that leverages the advantages of online disk storage but retains the portability and perceived longer lifespan of tapes.  However, this hybrid system is less cost effective and still subject to the high failure rates of tape.

How do these firms that use a GFS backup rotation rationalize tapes instead of upgrading to disk when the cost of tapes, based on a per-byte stored basis, is the major benefit attributing to their use?  Nexsan’s figures don’t include the cost to manage this system, either.  Tape backup equipment requires regular maintenance and cleaning, tapes must be manually reloaded when full, labeled and transported to a secure storage location; all of these operations must be closely supervised.  Therefore, the cost analysis of tapes as a backup method must also include the additional tapes needed to provide secure data retention, and the administrative hours required to manage the system.  A per-byte cost comparison fails to recognize the true capital requirement.  Obviously these costs prevent smaller businesses from having multiple backups and are directly correlated to Boston Computing Network’s findings, that 7 out of 10 small business that suffer data loss fail.

If downtime is the main focus of concern for those large firms that give little consideration to the cost of their backup system, then tapes are not the answer.  Although the physical availability of tapes may offer some individuals a sense of security, the time required to replace lost data from backup is substantial.  A high performance disk system can recover 10 terabytes in about two and a half hours.  While a backup system using LTO-4 tapes requires more than four days, over 100 hours, to recover the same 10 terabytes of data.  With downtime and availability in mind Nexsan made this comment, “the fundamental question to ask when looking at tape or disk is, ‘What are your recovery objectives?’ After all, it’s not really about the backup, it’s about the restore. It has to work, and it has to work on time.”  The extreme time requirement for data recovery from tapes should effectively resolve any argument with regards to downtime.

In conclusion, the benefits that professionals attribute to tapes are based on an incomplete analysis of the technology and the competition.  The per-byte cost for tape media is less than disk, but this comparison ignores the traditional requirement for multiple backups and the associated cost to do so.  Further, the downtime resulting from the extensive restoration time of a tape backup system far outweighs the advantages of physical on site availability and offline portability.  The tape media is outdated, having been designed during a time where scientists couldn’t comprehend the volume of data produced on a daily basis in 2011.  The amount of data produced that needs preservation far exceeds the capabilities of tape.  The only question that remains is why haven’t you made the choice for a more efficient and responsible method for backing up your data?

Check out the quoted text below for more from KSL 5 on the M-DISC or head on over to the original article by click here.

Most of us have photographs, documents and music that we wish we could keep forever. Unfortunately, DVDs eventually fail, and data back-up can be expensive and difficult to manage. But a homegrown Utah company recently launched a solution that lasts.

It is called Millenniata and they produce the M-Disc. On a standard DVD, the data is written on a reflective layer on the disk. With the M-Disc, the data is actually etched into the disc itself. The company earned praise for the product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

They call the M-Disc “the new standard in digital storage.”

“Now you can keep your data for a long, long time and not have to worry about managing it, or transferring it from one media to another,” said

The start-up is a BYU spin-off based in American Fork, with just 12 employees. Their technology creates a very enduring disc.

“So, rather than manipulating the dye layer, which is what happens today, we are actually etching, or engraving into the stone layer within the disc,” Decker said. “So, we’re making a permanent change into a hard substance.”

The disc can take a real beating, unless you bend it sideways in which case it will will snap. Because the dyes and reflective layers have been removed, you can actually see right through it.

“You can use it to keep your family photos, to keep your family records, your geneology records,” Decker said. Or your music and business records. Any kind of data at all that you would like to be permanent. Companies can use the M-Disc for permanent file backup and archives. You can use it use anytime, for generations, without losing data.

Millenniata earned the “Visionary Product of the Year” award at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company now partners with LG Data Storage to make M-Disc compatible DVD drives and disc writers, and that availability will grow.

You can buy the discs in packs of 5, 10, and 25 on their website, for $3 a disc, and you’ll start to see the M-Disc in stores soon.

“You have control over your data, and it’s long term. It’s not something that’s going to disappear and go away on you,” Decker said.

Millenniata Discs: “More Than” Archival Storage On American-Made DVDs

One of the main reasons we go to CES early is to attend the Storage Visions conference. This is the third year we’ve covered the conference just before the CES Show and it gets bigger each year. Once again it’s at the Riviera Hotel, just a stone’s throw from our hotel so that makes it very convenient for us to attend. Two of the organizers are Andy Marken and Tracy Laidlaw and they always do an excellent job.

There’s hardly anything less exciting than the materials and strategies for storing and backing up your digital files. Until something goes wrong. Then the lack of access becomes a central emergency in your life. The Storage Visions Conference is the place where the people who are planning how to keep us in touch with our exploding data and communication needs confer annually to share the current state of the art and guide the vision for next steps in the industry.

Millenniata had a truly unique product on display. Their M-Disc were developed in conjunction with LG and provides truly lifetime data storage. Unlike normal storage media, the M-Disc doesn’t use magnetic fields like many discs or organic dyes like regular DVD drives. The M-Discs are
actually physically altered to make a permanent record that never changes. Your data is literally chiseled in stone. Millenniata won the
Consumer Storage Award for Visionary Storage and it is well deserved.

We loved meeting Chuck and appreciate his write-up. Be sure to head on over to his site for other computer related chronicles!

M-DISC is on display today in booth #8 at Storage Visions and in the LG booth #8204 in Central Hall during CES Jan. 10-13.

“We are pleased to be recognized with this award,” said Scott Shumway, Millenniata CEO. “It recognizes the need of permanent storage across many different industries and applications, and is a true testament of the devotion and innovation displayed by our developers, employees, partners and investors.”

Millenniata received the award Sunday during the 11th Annual Storage Visions Conference. The conference features sessions on media and entertainment technology, consumer electronics, computer applications and all aspects of digital storage.

In August 2011, Millenniata launched the new optical disc technology ushering in a new era of information storage with its M-DISC and M-READY disc storage—technology that permanently etches data onto the write layer of the disc for use anytime and for generations to come without data lost.

Millenniata also entered into a manufacturing and marketing partnership with Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. to manufacture M-DISC compatible DVD drives under the LG brand.

The M-DISC will not degrade over time and is usable on a daily basis. M-DISC is a perfect storage solution for music, photos, videos, genealogical records, business records, data loss prevention, permanent file backup, medical imaging, government usage, and for archival purposes.

M-DISC optical discs are currently available through all of Millenniata’s retail, reseller and distributor partners and through the Millenniata website. LG-branded M-DISC compatible DVD drives are available immediately from newegg.com. Drive availability will steadily increase throughout 2012.

The M-DISC is the first backward compatible non-dye based DVD optical technology constructed of inorganic materials that are known to last centuries. M-DISC compatible drives are a high quality optical drive specifically designed to laser-etch digital information onto the M-DISC. This combination allows information to be written once and read over time and offers the best permanent data storage solution in the industry.

A panel of industry experts and journalists will serve as judges. For each product category, the judges will give priority to the product/service or company’s role in fulfilling the vision of a digitally-connected universe of products and services. For complex products, judges may require access to physically inspect and review a demonstration by a company representative or designee. When possible, samples of products are useful for the judging.

Below, you can read the press release about the Storage Visions Conference and other finalists.

2012 Storage Visions Conference Announces Annual Visionary Awards Finalists

– New Sponsors and Exhibitors are Kroll OnTrack, Oracle, Panzura and PureSilicon—

San Jose, CA—December 20, 2011—The Eleventh Annual Storage Visions Conference held at the Riviera Hotel Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 8 & 9, 2012, features great sessions on media and entertainment technology, consumer electronics, computer applications and all aspects of digital storage with the theme of “Heavy Storage for Thin Clients.”  More information is available on the conference at www.storagevisions.com.

The finalist products and companies for the annual Storage Visions Visionary Awards are listed below.  Congratulations to the award finalists!  As usual we had more great product and company submissions for all of these award categories than ever before.  The award winner announcements and trophy presentations will be done at the conference reception the evening of January 8, 2012 in the exhibit hall of the conference.  In addition to the award presentation there will be many great door prizes from our sponsors and exhibitors given out at the reception as well as other times during the conference.

Finalists for Visionary Products Awards: 

• Mobile Consumer Electronics Storage
  • Kingston Technology Wi-Drive
  • SanDisk and Asus Customized SSD Form Factor
  • Hitachi Global Storage Technology G-Connect

Home Consumer Electronics Storage

• Digistore Solutions Centurion DiscHub Blu-ray
• Netgear ReadyNAS Duo V2 and NV+v2
• Samsung Semiconductor USB SE 2088W-Smartlink
• Consumer Storage Device
  • Millenniata M-DISC
  • OCZ Technology RevoDrive Hybrid
  • Other World Computing Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD
• Enabling Consumer Storage Technology
  • Datalight Reliance Nitro
  • Micron RealSSD C400 Self Encrypted Drive
  • Lexar Media Crutial Cache Solution
• Enabling Professional Storage Technology
  • DataDirect Networks Web Object Scalar
  • Hitachi Data Systems Content Platform
  • Alactritech ANX 1500 NFS Acceleration Appliance
• Media and Entertainment System
  • Rorke Data Aurora with HyperFS
  • Nuvel NDT
  • CET Universe Constellation VCM with Archive Station
• Media and Entertainment Storage
  • Amplidata Amplistor
  • SeaChange Universal Media Library
  • Thought Equity Motion T3 Library Manager

Finalists for Visionary Company Awards:

• Visionary Home Consumer Electronics Company
  • OCZ Technology
  • SanDisk
  • Visionary Mobile Consumer Electronics Company
    • Samsung
    • Intel
    • Visionary Media and Entertainment Company
      • Violin Memory
      • IBM

Finalists for Art of Storage Award:

• Hitachi Global Storage Technology 8 TB G-RAID with Thunderbolt
• iTwin Plug and Play USB Device
• Kingston Technology Wi-Drive

Other SV 2012 sponsors and exhibitors are, Platinum:  Intel, Micron and SanDisk (also the SV 2012 bag sponsor).  Our Gold and lanyard sponsor is Toshiba.  Silver sponsors include Flexstar, Imation, NVELO, OCZ Technology and Samsung (reception and registration sponsor).  Bronze sponsors include Amplidata, Atempo, Brightsign, Cadence, DataDirect Networks, Datalight, SNIA SSSI, Thought Equity Motion and the Trusted Computing Group.  Exhibitors are Active Storage, DigiStore Solutions, Drive Savers, Dynamite Data, For-A, ioSafe, MemoRight, Millenniata, Philips LiteOn, Recycle Your Media, SATA-io and Xendata.   Our official News Wire sponsor is PR Newswire (VPO).

Our many organization and media sponsors can be found on the conference web site.