Optical Technology Special Interest Group (Australian Public Service applications) - 'Options for storing images on various media, including magnetic tape.'

OTSIG.  Minutes of the meeting held 3 April 1996

Apologies were received from Katy Bramich and Julie Lenson.

The guest speaker for this meeting was Greg Wilson from StorageTek.  
It was indicated that the
company has been operating in Australia since 1978.

Greg spoke about storage options.  Some factors to be considered in choosing 
storage media include:
     data capture - including rates of data capture and capacity of the 
media;
     data retrieval - how long does it take, and is retrieval needed online;
     durability;
     longevity; and
     legal issues.

In developing a strategy for data storage, 
he indicated that amongst other things 
there is a need to consider such issues as:
     the number of users;
     required retrieval;
     workflows;
     bandwidth;
     transfer rate; and
     file size.

Key factors in any decision will include speed, cost, 
capacity and connectivity.

The next meeting of the group will be at the Belconnen Library on June 5, on 
the topic of electronic forms.