Your Guide to Data Archiving

Data archiving is the practice of moving data to a long-term, secure storage solution. Beyond needing to reduce the amount of locally stored data, there are many reasons why a company or organization should consider archiving its data. Most businesses and organizations need to retain data to maintain accurate financial records, abide by local, state and federal laws and comply with industry regulations.

At the end of the day, data archiving is an important part of best practices for records and data management, regardless of industry.

A backup is a copy of the data created, which typically contains important information that’s needed for quick recovery in the event of a disaster or data loss.

With data archiving, information that a business or organization does not need to maintain operations is retained in storage for a certain period of time.

There are many advantages of archiving your data, and implementing an archiving solution is one of the best ways to achieve these results:

• Increased capacity — Storing data safely off-site that you need to keep but aren’t using for day-to-day operations will free up storage.
• Improved ability to meet compliance requirements — Most companies are required by regulatory bodies to archive email and other data . If your company hasn’t implemented an archiving solution that fully meets these data archiving requirements, your company can be subjected to fines.
• Enhanced productivity — Having all company information archived can improve productivity in other ways. An enormous amount of intellectual property is generated every year by most companies, and if employees can easily access well-archived older work they can often use it to improve or guide their current work rather than having to “reinvent the wheel” over and over again.
• Reduced costs — One way archiving can reduce costs immediately is by freeing up storage space by using efficient de-duplication and storage features.  In addition, archiving can reduce the workload of dedicated IT employees and eliminate time spent searching for certain types of data.
• Easier backup processes and prevention of data loss — Never worry again about what will happen to your data in the event of system failure or cyber attack. An archiving solution acts as a backup and recovery solution, providing safety and security to your valuable data.
• Increased security — Data breaches and cyber attacks are an unfortunate reality, which means you need the utmost protection when it comes to your data. Archiving your data with the right solution is one of the best steps you can take toward protecting your most important information.

Online storage means you have the ability to access your information at any time, but the disadvantage is the data is still consuming bandwidth, which can slow down your network and eat into your storage capacity.

Offline storage, which can be less convenient to access but acts as an important backup, is ideal for data that is not used regularly. This can include CDs, DVDs, hard drives and USB drives.

The first step in implementing a data archiving strategy is to review and sort through your data and determine what information will be archived.

You also need to ensure your strategy aligns with any compliance regulations in your industry. A few common examples include:

• HIPAA — This legislation addresses the issue of maintaining privacy in regard to someone’s private medical information.
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — This is a European Union (EU) regulation designed to protect the personal data of citizens of the EU and the greater European Economic Area and to enable citizens to exert more control over how their data is used.

In addition to industry regulations, there are also public record laws about text messages and freedom of information requests that may require a response from your organization.

When it comes to industry compliance regulations, it’s important for businesses and organizations to consult with their legal department.

It’s also vital to develop an overarching archiving policy, which should include a retention schedule for each data category.

Businesses and organizations that are serious about data archiving should consider an all-in-one data archiving solution. Archiving solutions are especially useful for electronic communications and files because they can automatically capture data and securely store it within a centralized repository. Certain archiving solutions even enable you to define custom records retention schedules and automate the retention process, saving you and your employees time and effort.

Here are some key points to look for:

• Real-time data capture
• Extensive search functionalities
• eDiscovery tools
• Guaranteed compliance with industry regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, FINRA, SEC 17a-4, FERPA, GLBA, FOIA, FRCP, SOX and more
• User-friendly interface
• Multi-platform archiving
• Excellent customer support
• Flexible scalability

If you have any questions or would like more information about our All-In-One-Archiving Solution, contact the team at Intradyn today.