Patent attributes
Technologies are described herein for ensuring data in long-term storage will be accessible at a future date. Upon storing the data in long-term storage, a well-defined instance of data processing resources is created on a host computing platform for the installation and testing of a related application that is capable of accessing the stored data. Once testing of the related application is complete, a machine image is generated from the instance and stored with the data in the long-term storage. If access to the data stored in the long-term storage is required at a future date, the data and associated machine image may be retrieved, and a compatible instance of data processing resources created in which the machine image may be restored. The data in the long-term storage may then be accessed by the related applications executing in the newly created instance.
