Data archiving is a process involving data storage and retention. The various types of media involved in it include tape, cloud, disk, and optical media. It involves storing data in digital format (softcopy) or paper format (hard copy).
Data archiving is essential since all documents need to be stored for reference or compliance purposes. Proper records management in an organization requires data to be safely stored.
Some of the best practices involved in archiving include:
Table of Contents
Data Compliance and Data Integrity
Every country has its own set of laws regarding data archiving. An organization may have millions of data files archived. However, effective archiving should ensure that the data is not prone to hackers. Leakage of crucial organization files could also lead to a bad reputation. Tagging of data also protects sensitive information from access by unauthorized parties.
Proper Data Archiving Management System
If data is in either paper or digital systems, there is a need to have a sound document management system. An electronic document management system obtained from the market will ensure that the archiving is secure and organized.
Accessibility
The archived data should be accessible to authorized personnel. In most cases within an organization, it is done by several staff members and thus should have the ability to retrieve and append the data. Also, the data should be available on a need-be basis within a minimum duration.
In the modern digital world, there is a rise in public and private cloud services. It should be easy to switch between clouds without an administrator remembering where the data is stored for digital data.
Transparent and Audit
Despite archived data being accessible to all employees, there should be several regulations and company rules regarding accessing the archive. The archive system should ensure that an activity tracker on uploading and accessing archived data is present. In case of misuse of the archiving space by an employee, there should be an established means to track the culprits
Evaluation
Any data archiving should be evaluated regularly to monitor its effectiveness and determine if any adjustments are necessary. An occasional evaluation enables to determine the suitability of the archiving process in terms of accessibility and security. It also allows for a decision on whether the system is meeting an organization’s needs.
Evaluation enables the pruning of data that no longer needs to be retained to free space while reducing costs.
Establishing an Archiving Process
Any organization should have a clearly stated out manual on archiving procedures. Not all data in an organization should be archived. For example, day-to-day accessed files should not be archived. Before embarking on adopting an archiving process, an opinion should be sought from different stakeholders.
Protection from Loss
Any archived data should be backed up in more than one location. Backup not only protects data from loss but ensures that corrupted information can be retrieved to append the damaged data. Some helpful backup solutions include using on-premise archiving, mirroring data to several servers in addition to using an external cloud location.
