Tag Archives: retention
How Is Database Archiving Different From Backup?
The utilization of backup vs. archiving software for databases is often confused in many organizations. Customers often use backup for the purposes of archiving and vice versa. A survey conducted by Symantec Software recently indicates that 70% of enterprises are misusing backup, recovery, and archiving practices. The survey shows that 70% of the enterprises use their backup software to implement legal holds and 25% preserve the entire backup set indefinitely. Also, the survey respondents said 45% of their backup storage is due to legal holds. Additionally, nearly half of the enterprises surveyed are improperly using their backup and recovery software for archiving.
So what are the differences between the two types of solutions? What should each be used for and how are they complementary?
The Information Lifecycle: Birth to Death
The term “life cycle” is used extensively when talking about information management but none of the existing definitions deal effectively with the death phase or even recognize that it exists. When you create a new BI report, do you also establish a way to track usage so that you know when it is no longer needed? When you implement a new IT system, do you define the data retention and deletion policies and procedures for its dataset? Does your company routinely evaluate applications and repositories for inactive data that is not adding business value? If you answered NO to any of these questions, you are not adequately managing the full life-cycle.
It’s time we expanded the notion of information life-cycle to include its eventual demise. My view of a more complete life-cycle model for information management consists of six stages each of which presents unique challenges and requires unique methods and tools. (more…)