DATA STORAGE INFORMATION FROM EDITH HOPE CHAVULA(MLIS0225).

 

Data Storage

Digital curation is the continuous process of managing, preserving, and adding value to digital assets throughout their lifecycle (Harvey & Bastian, 2020). A critical phase within this lifecycle is data storage, which involves maintaining digital objects in a secure, stable, and retrievable environment (Digital Curation Centre, 2021). According to Higgins (2018), proper storage ensures data integrity, prevents unauthorised access, and mitigates the risk of long-term bit rot. Organisations and individuals must align their storage practices with established international standards, such as ISO 14721, to guarantee that information remains accessible and authentic over time (International Organization for Standardisation 2012).

Types of data storage, challenges and solutions

To balance performance and budget, modern organizations deploy block, object, and file storage architectures (El-Haddad et al., 2022). High-performance block such as storage Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Google Cloud Persistent Disk, and physical Storage Area Networks (SANs) isolates data into raw pieces for ultra-low latency databases; however, it suffers from high costs and metadata limitations, which enterprises solve using automated data tiering and virtualization pools (El-Haddad et al., 2022).

Conversely, infinitely scalable object storage such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage, uses a flat namespace and rich metadata tags to host massive unstructured data lakes (GeeksforGeeks, 2026). While object storage faces read/write latency and lacks incremental file editing capabilities, organizations resolve these bottlenecks by adopting high-throughput all-flash arrays and edge-caching delivery networks (GeeksforGeeks, 2026).

Finally, hierarchical file storage seen in Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices, local hard drives, and shared network directories. offers intuitive folder navigation for office collaboration (Red Hat, 2018). Because file systems experience severe performance degradation and scaling bottlenecks as data volumes expand, modern enterprises deploy hybrid cloud file systems that continuously synchronize local network hardware with infinite cloud repositories (Red Hat, 2018).

 Figure 1. Types of data storage

Storage Procedures and Standards

Data Storage stores data in a secure and managed environment. According to Oliver and Harvey (2016), this involves data ingestion, where files are validated, virus-scanned, and assigned unique identifiers. Organisations must utilize redundant storage systems, commonly achieved through the different strategy like A, B and C. As stated by Smith (2022), this procedure requires keeping three copies of data, stored on two different types of media, with one copy located off-site. For example, a university repository might store student records on a local server, back them up on an institutional hard drive, and archive a third copy in a secure cloud environment. Furthermore, regular integrity checks using cryptographic checksums, such as Message Digest 5 (MD5) or Secure Hash 256 (SHA-256) Algorithms, are mandatory to detect file corruption (Pennock, 2019).

Figure 2.  Secure Hash 256 Algorithm.    

 

Compliance and Legal Frameworks

Data storage procedures must follow strict legal frameworks, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under GDPR Article 5, organisations must implement a storage limitation policy, keeping personal data identifiable only for as long as necessary (European Union, 2016). Meeting these legal mandates requires robust security measures, including AES-256 encryption for data at rest and pseudonymisation, which involves separating identifying personal details from other stored data points (European Data Protection Board, 2023)

Personal and Organisational Data Storage

Storage practices diverge significantly between personal and organizational contexts. According to Marshall (2016), personal file storage often relies on individual habits, utilising commercial cloud drives or external solid-state drives (SSDs) to preserve personal tax documents. Conversely, organisational file storage demands enterprise-level curation. According to Pinfield, Cox and Smith, (2014), research institutions and corporations manage large-scale data repositories using structured metadata schemas like Dublin Core. While an individual might simply drag a personal folder into a cloud sync folder, an organisation must enforce automated retention schedules, access-control lists and disaster recovery protocols to protect corporate memory and proprietary assets.

Figure 3. SSD storage device.

Figure 4. Different storage devices.

In conclusion, data storage within digital curation transcends the mere saving of files onto a disk. It requires a systematic approach dictated by international standards, rigorous security procedures like checksum verification, and strict compliance with legal frameworks such as the GDPR. By understanding the distinct operational needs of both personal and organisational files, curators can successfully safeguard digital heritage against technological obsolescence and security breaches.

References

Digital Curation Centre. (2021). The DCC curation lifecycle model. Edinburgh University Press.

El-Haddad, M., El-Sawy, A., & El-Khamy, S. E. (2022). Fault tolerance in big data storage and processing systems. Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences, 34(3), 850–865. doi.org.

European Union. (2016). Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. Official Journal of the European Union, L119, 1-88.

European Data Protection Board. (2023). Guidelines 01/2023 on data protection by design and by default. EDPB.

Geeks for Geeks. (2026). Block, object, and file storage in system design. geeksforgeeks.org

Higgins, S. (2018). Digital Curation: The development of a discipline within information science. Journal of Documentation, 74(6), 1318-1338. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2018-0024

International Organisation for Standardisation. (2012). Space data and information transfer systems — Open archival information system (OAIS) — Reference model (ISO Standard No. 14721:2012).

Marshall, C. C. (2018). Reading and writing the electronic book. Morgan & Claypool Publishers.

Oliver, Gillian, & Harvey, D. (2016). Digital curation: A how-to-do-it manual (2rd ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Pinfield, S., Cox, A. M., Smith, J. (2014). Research data management and libraries: Relationships, activities, drivers, and influences. PLoS ONE, 9(12), e114734. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0114734 [5]

Red Hat. (2018). File storage, block storage, or object storage? redhat.com

Smith, J. (2022). The foundational principles of data backup and storage archiving. Academic Press.

Spichtinger, D., Siren, J. (2017). The development of research data management policies in Horizon 2020. In Research data management policies (pp. 11–24). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/ 10.1515/9783110365634-002