Stephanie Hughes

He is chief engineer for the Maryland Transportation Authority.

Maryland expects the new bridge will be open to traffic in late 2030.

I'm Stephanie Hughes, and that's Marketplace Tech.

This is APM.

Just because something's in the cloud now doesn't mean it'll always be there.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Stephanie Hughes.

As a radio person, there are few worse feelings than when you realize some tape you thought you had nicely stored is actually gone.

And when I say tape, I mean the digital sound recording.

All digital files are stored on physical media such as hard drives or what's called LTO data tape.

And anything physical can fail.

So some companies and libraries and public radio stations turn to digital archivists.

I talked with one, Linda Todich, who leads the company Digital Bedrock.

I spoke with her about the work that goes into digital preservation.

Why is this so hard?

You know, this whole conversation, I think, is a good reminder that our digital files have physical roots.

I think that's easy to forget.

Why is that important for people to remember?

We'll be right back.

You're listening to Marketplace Tech.