The volume of data to be stored over a longer period of time is growing continuously in Germany and worldwide due to advancing digitalisation: According to recent estimates, around 330 million terabytes of new data are created globally every day, with 90% of the global data volume being generated in the last two years alone. Some of this data is of particular importance as scientific and cultural heritage for the creation, communication and dissemination of knowledge or social interaction for present and future generations. This data, which is particularly worthy of protection, should be stored and made accessible in research institutions, museums, libraries and archives for as long as possible. The long-term archiving of data is technically and organisationally very demanding. Data is bound to archive media with different lifespans, including microfilms and magnetic tapes. The hardware, software and file formats used are subject to technological change and quickly become obsolete. A wide range of information about the respective data records (metadata) must also be stored so that the latter can still be read and reused years later. In addition, the electronic archiving of large data sets is generally resource and energy intensive. In particular, the long-term archiving of rarely used data in server farms, which are growing worldwide, is problematic from an ecological and economic point of view. The long-term archiving of cultural and scientific heritage data requires archive media with high storage density, low energy consumption and the longest possible lifespan. Research is being conducted into technological approaches such as data storage using DNA, glass or phase change memory (PCM) as well as atomic data storage options.