Designing your archiving strategy

Planning for success

Archiving data in the modern day is one of the cornerstones of keeping an organization’s continuity intact; it ensures that information remains accessible and retrievable into the future. Let’s take a look at what roles archives play for organizations worldwide, how you need to design them, and what to keep in mind as you begin designing your archiving strategy:

Why archive?

Archiving fills several parallel roles for organizations. Depending on their country of origin and their field of business, the balance of roles may be different, but in general all of the following are present:

  1. Data preservation for future internal use
  2. Data identification for legal use, audits, or legal action
  3. Backup of data in case of corruption, theft or cyberattacks

What steps should you take in designing your archive?

  1. Take into account how long you need to keep data for compliance, audit, or backup purposes. This includes looking at what your local legal and regulatory environment requires
  2. Define your data archiving and retention rules – what data is captured, how long it is stored and by what criteria
  3. Set up your access requirements – is the archive meant to be sealed and only accessible to a narrow admin team, or will you opt for democratized access?
  4. Establish how the archive will run – on-premises, on the Cloud, or a hybrid of the two?
  5. Do your research – what archiving system fits your needs and requirements? Which organization do you feel comfortable entering a long-term relationship with?

Ensure your archive is best for you

As the digital world grows in complexity and fills out with new regulations, systems and threats, the importance of archive and backup systems grows in tandem with it. Designing your archive strategy to meet the current needs of your business – as well as future forecasted needs – is and will remain a key to future success.

Archive Smarter with TECH-ARROW

by Matúš Koronthály