“Eleven nines” (99.999999999% durability) is the target many cloud providers use to describe how unlikely data loss from hardware or system failure is within their platforms. This figure reflects the reliability of large-scale storage infrastructure, but not a guarantee of long-term access. Even the most robust cloud systems cannot ensure that data will remain accessible and secure in the face of government pressure, legal mandates, censorship, or platform policy changes.
The Limits of “Eleven Nines”
The truth is, even the most well-intentioned providers can be compelled—by subpoenas, regulatory obligations, or political pressure—to restrict or remove services in ways that render information unreachable. One infamous example is Amazon Web Services ending hosting for WikiLeaks in December 2010 amid intense political scrutiny; AWS said the site violated its terms of service, while contemporaneous reporting also linked the decision to pressure and inquiries from U.S. officials. More recently, in January 2021, AWS suspended hosting for Parler after concluding the service violated its terms, taking the platform offline until it moved providers. When so much of what later becomes “the record” is mediated by private infrastructure and platform governance, preservation becomes contingent rather than enduring.
And yet, we rely on these platforms, sometimes exclusively, to preserve our country’s historical records. We do this despite knowing the “eleven nines” cannot protect against the human and institutional decisions that ultimately determine whether the record can still be reached. And it’s not just these headline-making examples. Terms of service can change overnight, and security systems can change in an instant when companies shift strategies, undergo acquisition, or shut down entirely.
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Building Censorship-Resistant Preservation
These challenges highlight the critical need for more distributed, censorship-resistant preservation approaches. Systems such as LOCKSS-style replication (e.g., CLOCKSS), IPFS (used to maintain Wikipedia access in restricted regions), and decentralized infrastructures like Filecoin allow records to be stored across independent nodes, mitigating the risk of government pressure on a single platform resulting in permanent loss or restricted access.
What’s equally critical is investing in archivists and public institutions. Archivists do far more than store old documents and objects. They appraise and acquire collections, preserve and digitize records, create finding aids and descriptions so people can locate materials, and help researchers interpret and use those materials responsibly. Importantly, they determine what becomes part of the public record, preserve context, and make ethically driven decisions about sensitive materials.
Intertwined with these responsibilities is the need to solve the digital preservation problem. Without their specialized expertise and commitment to preservation, even the most advanced preservation systems risk becoming hollow repositories. They may be technically functional but risk becoming culturally incomplete. That’s why putting archivists’ expertise and ownership at the center of any preservation solution is mission critical.
Safeguarding Public Ownership and Open Access
Why does this all matter? History is unfolding faster than we are able to preserve it. Public entities and archivists don’t have the resources and funding to make permanent preservation a priority which can lead to dire consequences. Young people are at risk of losing an essential foundation for learning about our nation’s past, and future leaders are deprived of lessons from history that could guide them in shaping policies and progressing toward a more perfect union. Tomorrow’s journalists, historians, researchers, and citizens may be working from incomplete, biased, or inaccessible records, reshaping how events are remembered and removing critical historical learnings from the public eye.
In short, preservation is about safeguarding the evidence of our collective memory. In a world where access can vanish with a policy update or geopolitical pressure, archivists and resilient preservation systems are our strongest defense against the erasure and obscuring of our history.
Preservation should ensure public ownership of records, replication across institutions, and digitization agreements that protect open access. Ensuring long-term, equitable access to historical archives safeguards our collective memory and empowers every generation to engage with, learn from, and act with the knowledge of all historical records.
