The Ultimate Guide to Enterprise Information Archiving, 01 May 2023

The practice of relocating data that is inactive or seldom accessed to a different storage site, where it may be preserved safely for extended periods, is called data archiving. This method is used relatively often to cut down on the expenses associated with data storage, liberate space on central storage systems, and ensure that essential data is kept safe for later application.

What is data achieving?

Enterprise Information Archiving (EIA) is the process by which an organisation archives its structured and unstructured communications data for compliance, lawsuit management, storage reduction, business intelligence, and information governance.

Data archiving is part of record management, the lifecycle management of business records as proof of a company's operations. Compliance data archiving standards have evolved since organisations began archiving. Instead of using archives to verify compliance and safeguard organisations from lawsuits and failed audits, they are employed as knowledge and business intel repositories.

Data archiving expanded to encompass more data kinds as business communication channels increased. Today's most preserved communication records:

Email (attachments)

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Teams, Zoom, Slack, Meet, and more.

WhatsApp, et al.

SMS, voicemail, and calls

Websites

Data archival strategy?

Data archiving should be done strategically, considering data retention rules, protection, and privacy. Data preservation policy considerations:

Ensure your data archiving policy matches the retention periods in your verticals and business rules.

Destroy records after retention periods. Data archiving systems may automate retention, deleting all objects under a policy when the retention term expires.

Retaining all your data eternally causes liability and increases search time. Some data, such as C-level management records, email records with crucial company decisions, and employment records, must be stored indefinitely.

Secure your data archiving solution. Data storage does not guarantee security. Financial data and customer/employee data are in archives. Look for a data archiving services supplier with the necessary technology and skills, near-perfect uptime, security and data privacy certifications, and a solid SLA.

Since legal/compliance, IT, and HR teams often have different (and sometimes conflicting) needs and may advocate for different retention periods, include them in the data archiving strategy.

Explore data archiving software options and test them with demos or POCs. Find suppliers that can archive email, social media, and mobile messaging. Thus, you may centralise data preservation and discovery and control all communication channels from one system.

We will discuss how to implement a data archiving strategy,

First: Determine Archiving Needs

• Define your data archiving needs first. This involves choosing what data to preserve, how frequently, and for how long. Consider these considerations to calculate these requirements:
• Data Retention Policy: This governs data retention. Data retention should be based on regulatory, legal, commercial, and other criteria.
• Classify data by significance, sensitivity, and other aspects. This will define which data to archive and how.
• Archiving should follow data access patterns. Long-term storage is best for seldom-used data, whereas primary storage is for often-accessible data.

2: Choose an Archiving Method

• After defining your archiving needs, choose a technique. Two primary archiving methods:
• Offline Archiving: Data is archived on tape drives or optical discs. This approach is used to store seldom accessed data.
• Online archiving includes shifting data to disk-based or cloud-based storage systems. This approach is used to store frequently accessed data temporarily.

Step 3: Select an Archiving Solution

• After choosing an archiving technique, pick a solution. Many archiving systems have merits and downsides. When selecting an archiving system, consider
• Scalability: The archiving solution should scale with your data storage demands.
• Security: Encryption, access restrictions, and audit trails are essential for archiving.
• Integration: Your IT infrastructure, including backup and recovery systems, should work with the archiving solution.
• Cost: The archiving system should have a low lifetime cost of ownership.

Step 4: Implement Archiving

• Implement your archiving solution. Steps include:
• Customise the Archiving Solution: To satisfy your archiving needs, customise the solution. Set retention regulations, data categorisation standards, and security features.
• Test the Archiving Solution: Make sure it works. Backup and recovery, data retrieval, and security may be tested.
• Train Users: Teach users how to access preserved data, recover data, and utilise security features with the archiving system.

Step 5: Manage the Archiving Solution

• To keep the archiving solution meeting your needs, you must monitor and manage it. Steps include:
• To guarantee proper operation, monitor the archiving solution. It may entail

In conclusion,inspirito believes that data archiving is an essential process for businesses that must manage large amounts of data efficiently and effectively. It helps to reduce costs, free up space on central storage systems, ensure compliance with regulations, reduce the risk of data loss, and provide easy access to critical data when needed. As such, it is essential to any organisation's data management strategy.

We appreciate your time in reading our blog! At Inspirito, we're passionate about

providing high-quality back office and customer support services delivered digitally. Our

services enable businesses to streamline operations and concentrate on their core

competencies.

Please get in touch if you want to learn more about how we can assist your Business.

Our team will gladly answer any questions and provide a solution tailored to your requirements.