In Digital Curation we have been talking a lot about ‘emulation’ and ‘migration’. But what are these fancy terms? Well, get comfortable and I will try to explain.
The ever changing lifecycle of technology has become a fact of life. New technology gets introduced, gains popularity, goes into decline and inevitably gets superseded. This is a big problem if you want to preserve born digital data. Don’t fear as all is not lost. Migration and emulation to the rescue!
Migration is the process of transferring data from an outdated hardware/software system environment to a newer hardware/software. File formats can be converted as well as operating systems. The aim of the game is to be able to access your data. As amazing as this sounds, there are certain issues when utilizing migration as a long-term preservation strategy. Migration is not just a ‘one off’ process. As previously mentioned, technology waits for no one. Therefore migration is not always possible and can be expensive and time-consuming.
Emulation on the other hand, is the process of imitating an outdated environment on a newer system. The advantage that emulation has over migration is its possibility of preserving functionality as well as the original ‘look’ and ‘feel’. However, it might be necessary for users to learn unfamiliar technology and depending on the needs of your organisation this is not always possible.
So which is one better? That is a tough question to answer, but at least the options are there!
Laura
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