This Friday, April 22, 2022, is Earth Day and it was created to educate everyone about what we can do to protect and preserve our planet and our homes. Some of you may think I’m crazy by suggesting that optical discs are better for the environment than the Cloud. Aren’t optical discs made out of plastic and the Cloud is an invisible storage in the sky? Well, even though it’s true that optical discs are made from a small amount of plastic, it’s not true that cloud storage and large data centers are harmless to the planet. In fact, just the opposite. Data Centers, which is what runs the Cloud and businesses all over the world are one of the largest consumers of energy, which is a major culprit in emitting greenhouse gases and other factors leading to irreversible climate change. Currently, Data Centers account for 3% of the total energy used around the world just to maintain servers that hold both hot and cold data.

Cold data means data that is not actively reviewed and therefore not needed to be available as quickly as Hot data, which is content that is frequently viewed and relied upon. An example of Cold data could be all the photos of past meals you’ve taken or similar content that are rarely viewed if ever. Because of the proliferation of digital content produced daily, the amount of Cold data is growing exponentially greater than Hot or Warm data. Why are we using servers that require immense amounts of energy to maintain cold data that’s rarely viewed?

That’s where Optical Discs come into play. But not just any optical discs, because there are some low grade discs that degrade easily and could cause data loss in as little as a few years. If you use high quality optical discs like the OPTODISC line, then you have typically 50+ years archival life with the reliability to ensure your content will be safe and available when you need it.

While we’re waiting for discs to be used for Cold Data on the global stage, we can start making a difference immediately by offloading Cold Data from your internal work servers now. Adding an archival Jukebox or just offloading old digital content onto strong quality OPTODISC discs would still make a big difference if enough SMB’s and SME’s used optical discs to offload Cold Data. They say change starts with the person in the mirror, lets all take a look ourselves and see what we can do to help the Earth today and everyday going forward.

For more details on this item or any product Vinpower offers, please visit our website at www.vinpowerdigital.com, or contact a representative near you.