Alfresco in its standard implementation is a very competent document management system. But it is very easy to extend it to be a compliant digital archive to store images and documents for both short and long term archival. You can select to use Alfresco's standard extension for Records Management (link to external source), or choose to create your own data model for a custom file plan. Either way Alfresco will help you get compliant with your needs for a proper digital archive.
If you are creating a digital Image Archive Alfresco will help you not only with storing of the images files, but also extract embedded metadata from the file such as EXIF and store that with in the digital image archive. If you need to make the image available in different sizes and image formats, Alfresco will help you with the transformation.
And if you use our Zoomable add-on you will be able to present high resolutions images for your users without delay and heavy use of bandwith.
If you want more information or want us to set up a demo site for you, please contact us!