Government regulation continues to mount regarding the future of data retention and deletion, a key aspect in national and international legislation. At the same time, requirements placed on data management and automation are growing in turn. Given the amount of data that businesses collect, process and store, as well as the speed at which that data is managed, the problem is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future – a key concern for organizations.
What is data retention, and why does it matter?
Data retention and regulation has been a topic covered thoroughly by restrictions and legislations, which continue to mount and increase in scope and security. These include various depositions on how long data must be retained and stored – especially in the German speaking world – as well as admonitions regarding privacy and personal data security.
To accommodate these mandatory retention policies, as well as comply with eDiscovery cases and other data handling requirements, organizations have largely turned to archives and data management software that allows for long term storage and retrieval of data.
Existing legislation on data retention
Most people are by now familiar with the major pieces of international or national legislation – the European Union GDPR being one of the most commonly cited, but with other regulations and regulatory bodies in place even just on the EU level.
While the GDPR’s influence is by now largely understood, organizations maintaining compliance with it are increasingly likely to find their data management software and their policies unable to easily cope with further, different regulations layered on top of it; this is especially true of organizations that look to establish a presence internationally.
Outside the EU, financial organizations looking to operate in the USA also have to potentially look into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s electronic recordkeeping requirements for broker-dealers and security-based swap entities, as well as other legislation.
Upcoming regulations might further complicate the playing field
There is a number of new regulatory acts coming into effect over the course of the next decade – the EU AI Act is intended to come into power in 2025, for example, as a response to the proliferation of AI tools.
The AI Act is primarily targeting AI tools, their training data, and their generated content, a topic raised during this years’ Data Protection Day. While it is still unclear how exactly this will impact businesses and organizations, it is likely that the stated need to audit AI generated content will put another requirement on data identification and retrieval.
Older data control software is rapidly becoming obsolete
Data management and control software is generally up to the task of handling the load and regulations from its inception. However, unless it is regularly updated, it is unlikely to gracefully handle new tasks imposed by newer regulations.
A common solution explored by organizations is to use several concurrently-running data management or storage systems to achieve different aspects – from GDPR and eDiscovery compliance, to long-term retention, to data backups for critical information. While this guarantees coverage of all your organization needs, it also guarantees you will be spending far in excess of what you would if using a unitary system that covers all regulatory and security needs simultaneously.
Control your data with modern archives
An ideal system in this rapidly evolving world of archiving is one that addresses multiple points and roles simultaneously – providing aspects of data security, automated retention policies, search and deletion options, and more. This prevents organizations from having to juggle several competing software to fully cover their needs. Furthermore, it is critical that the system chosen is modern, up to date, and regularly updated. This prevents you from being blindsides when a new requirement it introduced which your existing systems do not cover.
In considering which archive or backup is the right choice, and which individual solution would best meet your company requirements, look no further than contentACCESS. Our solution provides coverage of your most critical business information – including SharePoint, Emails, Microsoft Teams, and other files. All of these are kept secure within a single unified archiving system, while remaining completely accessible for your employees through a variety of means including our Web Access portal, Outlook integration options and mobile app.
In addition to the added efficiency and accessibility provided by contentACCESS, our archive can also guarantee all the retention options and policies required to ensure your company remains not only safe and secure, but also in compliance with the continuously expanding legal frameworks regulating data retention. contentACCESS keeps your stored information versioned and discoverable, based on policies and guidelines you can set and adjust to best meet both your legal requirements and personal needs.
If our offer interests you, and your company is ready to guarantee their critical information’s safety going forward, contact us. Our team of specialists will gladly schedule a cost-free consultation with you where we can go over how you can best leverage our decades of experience for your business’ benefit.
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