The future of CD-RW and DVD in corporate IT - Storage Networking

Computer Technology Review, March, 2003 by Howard Wing

Today, it is easy to forget that recordable optical technologies were once so unusual and expensive that only corporate data centers could afford them. These technologies have come a long way over the last two decades, as we've gone from 5.25-inch optical disc drives with $10,000 price tags, to CD/DVD burners that are either bundled with base model PCs or retail for under $250.

Despite the proliferation of CD-R/RW and DVD drives in mass-market consumer electronics, entertainment, and PC products, they still have an important role to play in corporate data storage applications. The data requirements of businesses are growing at a phenomenal rate estimated to be as high as 70 percent per year by the Gartner Group. This means that in 20 years...hold on...before we get too deeply into prognostication about the future of recordable optical technology, let's conduct a brief survey of the current landscape.

Recordable Compact Disc--Simple and Reliable, but Limited Capacity

CD-R and CD-RW are familiar acronyms to everyone by now. A long time ago, the computer industry decided to settle on a single set of technology standards for recording and rewriting compact discs. Without the ISO standards endorsed by all manufacturers, the CD industry would not have enjoyed such constant growth over the past decade. Responsible media and drive suppliers recognize the importance of these ISO standards, and the need to maintain them in each product generation for backwards compatibility.

Today's CD-R/RW burners feature very high operational speeds--up to 52X write-once recording and 24X rewritable (erasable)--and are available in a variety of internal, external, and even portable system configurations. The drives themselves attach to computers using a wide range of interfaces, from legacy ATAPI and SCSI connectors, to High-Speed USB 2.0 and cutting-edge Fire Wire (IEEE 1394). Compact discs hold 650-700 megabytes of data, movies or music, which puts them on the low end of the capacity-scale when compared with magnetic tape, hard drive, and other data storage options.

Because CD technology is now ubiquitous, it guarantees interoperability across a broad base of systems and geographies. Recognizing the limited usefulness of the 1.44MB floppy disk, four industry giants--Compaq (now HP), Microsoft, Philips, and Sony--decided to develop a standard for a true drag-and-drop file system for rewritable CDs. The Mount Rainier format (also known as CD-MRW) is rapidly gaining ground as a universal standard for native OS support of CD-RW drives. In addition to drag-and-drop files, Mount Rainier also lets you pop an unformatted disc into the drive and use it immediately.

Recordable DVD--Large Capacity and Versatile, but Confusing Standards

In 1996, the compact disc industry unveiled its next-generation technology: DVD. An acronym for digital versatile disc, DVD is indeed highly adaptable, with five different physical formats for (1) feature-length motion pictures, (2) audio, (3) read-only data, (4) write-once, read-many data, and (5) rewritable data.

DVD has much more data storage capacity than compact disc technology--each disc holds 4.7 gigabytes or about seven times more information than a CD. But unlike the highly standardized world of CD-R/RW, there are still several competing recordable DVD standards.

All recordable drives can read DVD-ROM discs, but each uses a different type of disc for recording. DVD-R, which first became available in 1997, can record data once (sequentially only), while the rewritable formats, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW, can all be rewritten thousands of times.

DVD-RW is Pioneer's evolutionary development of existing CD-RW/DVD-R technology, which became available at the end of 1999, while the alternative DVD+RW standard was developed by Phillips and Sony. Although it is impossible to predict the ultimate outcome of this particular standards battle, it is easy to understand why some IT departments are reluctant to purchase recordable DVD systems until the standards have been finalized.

Common Benefits of Recordable CUs and DVDs

Both CD and DVD technologies offer many benefits in the corporate IT world, starting with the highly portable nature of the drives and media. No one would dream of lugging a magnetic tape drive around on the road, but every notebook computer maker offers optional or built-in recordable CD and DVD drives, or combo drives that can handle both media. The discs themselves are very lightweight, yet relatively durable, especially compared to tape cartridges.

CD/DVD discs are ideal for transferring large amounts of data or files from one system to another. Whether you are transferring data, audio, video or image files, there is an optical disc that will suit your needs. CDs can be written in under three minutes, while DVDs can be written in less than 15 minutes. And with advanced recording features such as BURN-Proof, it is nearly impossible for users to create "coasters."

Cost is another factor that goes in favor of CD and DVD. When purchased in bulk quantities, the media costs a fraction of a cent per megabyte, and the prices of drives keep falling. Compared with other segments of the removable storage industry, the CD/DVD market is dominated by large multinational companies with well-known brand names, so there's little risk of buying a dead-end solution from a company that won't be around to support it tomorrow.