Lab46 Wiki

• Data Storage is a fundamental aspect of computing involving components and media that can hold digital data. It is often called storage or memory. Storage is typically non-volatile memory such as hard drives or optical discs. Memory is typically volatile memory like RAM.

• Primary Storage, often called memory, is the only one that can be directly access by the cpu. Primary storage loses its data when there is now power, aka it's volatile. Memory as we are used to it is our RAM, but registers are also a part of primary storage.

• Secondary Storage cannot be directly accessed by the cpu. This is known as external memory. It is slower than primary storage, but cheaper and it does not lose its data when powered down, aka non-volatile.

• Tertiary Storage is a third level of storage that consists of anywhere from one to several storage drives. It is usually very slow, so it is usually used to archive data that is not accessed frequently. These are usually run by some form of automated mechanism and used for extremely large data stores that are accessed without human operators. Tape Libraries and Optical jukeboxes are examples of Tertiary storage.

• Offline Storage is storage on a medium that is not under the control of the CPU. The data is stored on the medium then the medium is removed. Unlike Tertiary Storage, Offline Storage needs a human operator and is not always kept close to the computer. Flash memory and optical drives are examples of offline storage. Offline storage increase Information Security since the data can be stored offsite and is not constantly connected to the computer.

• A Tape Library is a storage device that contains a collection of magnetic tape cartridges and tape drives used for reading and writing data. It has access ports for entering and removing tapes and a robotic device for mounting and dismounting the tape cartridges without human intervention. A tape library is an example of tertiary storage, and can be used to store immense about of data currently ranging from 20 terabytes to 366 petabytes.

• An Optical Jukebox is another example of tertiary storage and very similar to a tape library. It is a storage device that can load and unload optical discs. They can provide anywhere from terabytes to petabytes of data.

• *Information Security** is protecting data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction. I mentioned this concept when talking about offline storage and felt it was worth going into more detail. Offline Storage increases information security because the data is stored offsite(in theory) and is not directly accessible. Lets say I copy all of my research work from my home PC to a flash drive then store that flash drive in a safety deposit box. Now lets say I have a house fire and it destroys my pc, I have a backup stored offsite that was not damaged. Lets alternatively say that a hacker accessed my laptop and destroyed or altered my data somehow, I again have a backup offsite that the hacker had no way to access. There are more aspects to Information security than just offline storage, firewalls, and virus protection are examples.

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State the course objective

In your own words, define what that objective entails.

State the method you will use for measuring successful academic/intellectual achievement of this objective.

Follow your method and obtain a measurement. Document the results here.

Reflect upon your results of the measurement to ascertain your achievement of the particular course objective.

• How did you do?
• Is there room for improvement?
• Could the measurement process be enhanced to be more effective?
• Do you think this enhancement would be efficient to employ?
• Could the course objective be altered to be more applicable? How would you alter it?