XML as a data format standard for the long-term storage of analytical data

When laboratory data need to be stored for long periods of time, the question of ensuring retrieval at some future date becomes important. A reasonable question to ask is, "Will the software that generated the data be available 10 or 20 years from now?" In fact, there is no assurance that it will be. Preserving data from laboratory instrumentation for future applications in the XML format provides a solution to this problem.