Information Futureproofing for Large-scale Infrastructure

There are challenges of maintaining, refurbishing and modernising infrastructure assets under limited investments available for such purposes. Potential technological and operational challenges exist as a barrier to long-term information retention, which also plays a crucial role, amongst other factors, to futureproof major infrastructure. These issues appear to be trivial for short-term data management where informal information management practices suffice but over a 50+ year timeframe these issues are critical. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the challenges in futureproofing infrastructure information, and to present a selection of approaches that companies take to address them. It is proposed that strategies of large-scale infrastructure companies should incorporate technological and organisational elements of information futureproofing. An approach to develop information futureproofing strategies is also proposed.