Storage breakthroughs are exciting. But Digital Preservation is what keeps information alive.
Jon Tilbury
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March 24, 2026
Recent headlines about Microsoft’s Project Silica have sparked renewed interest in long-term digital storage. The technology uses laser-etched quartz glass to store data that could remain physically intact for centuries.
It is an impressive materials breakthrough. As Melissa Terras, Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh, noted in The Guardian's article, “Any type of storage that allows for long-term digital information management is exciting, particularly if the media is inert and has the potential to last without special maintenance.”
But she also raised an important question. Even if the storage medium survives, will the technology and instructions required to read that information still exist in the future?
That distinction goes to the heart of Digital Preservation.
Durability is not the same as preservation
Storing digital information for a long time is not the same as preserving it. History has shown that digital information often becomes inaccessible not because the storage medium fails but because the technology required to read and interpret the data disappears. Hardware environments mature and the technology to read the storage may not be operational. The bits may still exist, but the ability to read them no longer exists.
Also, it is difficult to tell if the bits have been tampered with. Preservation best practices recommend calculating a checksum, a digital fingerprint, for each file to verify that it has not been changed. And even if the storage is 100% trustworthy, you need multiple copies in multiple locations. This way, a single media failure or loss is not a problem and catastrophic failure, for example, the loss of an entire data centre, does not result in data loss.
The hidden risk of file format obsolescence
Even if we are confident the bits are reliably and provably safe, we are now faced with the format in which the data is held. Imagine discovering a perfectly preserved digital file from decades ago. The storage medium still works, the bits are intact and the digital fingerprint is the same, but the software and formats needed to interpret the data no longer exist. The information survives physically, but it cannot be accessed or understood.
Digital Preservation addresses this problem directly. It ensures that digital information remains readable, trustworthy and usable as technology changes. Every digital file is encoded in a specific format that depends on software to interpret it. As computing environments evolve, those formats may become unsupported or difficult to access.
A document saved today in a proprietary format may be difficult to open twenty years from now. A video encoded with a deprecated codec may no longer play. A complex dataset may depend on software that no longer exists.
Preservation systems address this risk by identifying the formats present in digital collections and monitoring them over time. When formats become vulnerable or unsupported, preservation workflows migrate those files to sustainable formats that future systems can access.
At the scale of modern digital collections, this work cannot be done manually. It requires automated preservation processes that operate continuously as collections grow and technology advances.
Context and discovery
Even if we have the bits and know how to read them we need to understand their context. Are these minutes the draft, the copy sent for approval or the final approved version? This is where metadata comes in, providing guidance on interpreting the raw data. Metadata also makes search so much easier, providing simple search text that points you to the important information. And the good news is that this often manual task can now be performed more easily with AI assistance.
The Digital Preservation lifecycle
All of this shows why digital preservation is not a one-time act. It is an ongoing process that requires active stewardship over time. This is the principle behind Active Digital Preservation. It is a lifecycle approach that ensures digital information remains accessible for decades, if not centuries, regardless of technological change.
Many organizations assume that storing files in ECM systems or archive repositories is sufficient. In practice, these approaches can leave information vulnerable to format obsolescence, media failure and metadata loss over time. Our guide on ECM archiving vs. Digital Preservation explains why organizations now require preservation strategies designed for long term access and trust. For institutions responsible for preserving national memory, this distinction between storage and preservation is a daily operational reality.
Businesses and institutions carry a unique responsibility
The importance of this approach impacts regulated businesses that need to maintain information over decades for compliance, legal defence, operational continuity and as a readable and trusted system-of-record for AI initiatives.
It is also vital when viewed through the lens of academic libraries and cultural heritage institutions.
These organizations are responsible for safeguarding the intellectual and cultural record of entire nations while continuously collecting new digital material. The scale of that responsibility continues to grow as more publications, research outputs and cultural works are created in digital form.
The British Library illustrates this shift. As the world's second-largest library, it already holds more than 170 million items and adds millions of new materials each year. These materials arrive in digital formats, including e-books, websites, sound recordings, digitised heritage collections and research outputs.
Managing collections of this size requires more than simply storing digital files. It requires systems designed to support long-term authenticity and access as technology evolves.
For this reason, the British Library recently selected Preservica to provide the Digital Preservation Repository platform and implementation services to support the management and long-term preservation of its expanding digital collections.
The decision reflects a broader shift among national and research libraries worldwide. As digital collections grow in scale and complexity, institutions are investing in preservation environments built specifically to safeguard digital heritage for future generations.
Read some of our customer stories to learn how institutions around the world trust Preservica to safeguard tens of millions of digital assets to the highest levels of security and integrity.
Innovation and Digital Preservation go hand in hand
New storage technologies may shape the future of digital information. But the urgent task today is ensuring that the vast amount of digital records being created daily requires sustained investment in preservation infrastructure governance and expertise.
Advances in storage media, such as glass, offer promising possibilities for the durability of digital information. But preservation is not defined by how long bits survive. It is defined by whether future generations can still access, interpret and understand the information those bits represent.
Durable storage protects the bits. Active Digital Preservation protects the meaning. Together, they ensure that the digital record of our time remains available not just for decades but for centuries.
To learn more about how preservation systems identify format risks and automatically migrate files to sustainable formats over time, read the White Paper Automated File Format Preservation by Jon Tilbury, Chief Innovation Officer at Preservica. You can also explore our broader series of Digital Preservation White Papers for deeper insight into long-term information stewardship.
