All you really need to keep data forever is RAID (10 is nice, 1 is the minimum; for more resiliency, you can mirror the entire array a couple of times too) with

All you really need to keep data forever is RAID (10 is nice, 1 is the minimum; for more resiliency, you can mirror the entire array a couple of times too) with a load of hot spares, perhaps with the copies stored at 4 or more sites (2+ continents). Radiation shield the lot to reduce bit flips, and if one occurs, you have a background read process that catches them and uses a simple quorum to determine the correct value; some form of ECC could also be built into either the file format or the filesystem itself. As more storage is needed and/or the distro they are using updates a major version, build a new system in parallel, replicate first, test, then remove the old one once it's all verified as good. An interesting article about the National Archives at Kew: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/11/feature_geeks_guide_uk_national_archive/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/11/feature_geeks_guide_...