Most of us are of the opinion that the time of the DVD has come and gone. When we have a flash drive that as small as our finger offering more space than the standard DVDs available in the market, why would anyone want to use DVDs?
Well, it is a mistake to compare DVDs with the floppy disc. The biggest disadvantage with the floppy disc was its lack of reliability. Size of storage is secondary as compared to reliability. The biggest advantage with a CD or DVD is that it offers 100% reliability of data storage. How? Well, the DVD has no in built electronic components. It is just a piece of plastic into which data has been burned.
Once the DVD is prepared, all you need is a reader to read the information. Hence, it is a passive form of storage of data. Once the data is stored, there is absolutely no question of any changes to the same.
Flash drives and USB drives maybe smaller than DVDs and easier to handle. However, it is very difficult to ensure the data has not been modified or has not been changed. Have you ever heard of a read only USB drive? This is possible only by installing additional programs that restrict access to the drive. However, any and every external program can be hacked and broken into. This means that there is no guarantee that the data that is stored on a USB drive is completely safe.
Another advantage that the DVD offers over the USB drive is that it can be operated on any computer that has a DVD reader. Of course, USB ports have become pretty much standard for computers all over the world. However, speed of data transfer depends on type of USB ports available in the computer.
If you have a huge 16 GB drive, you will not be in a position to operate it in all computers. This is one problem you will never face when you make use of a DVD.