Why you still really need an archive solution

By Michael
April 25, 2013

Backup tape management is not the fastest storage solution, but it can be made faster. Magnetic tape isn’t the newest option, but it’s constantly evolving. And while some firms think that it’s okay to operate in a day-to-day data control infrastructure with no archive tools to cover their assets in the event of disaster, backup tape tools are still proving themselves an essential part of disaster recovery and continuity protection.

InfoWorld wrote that the depth of archives today is far greater than anything businesses have ever had to contend with. These files are all essential to different aspects of the organization for maintaining compliance, creating analytics and promoting transparency at various levels of the company. On top of that, they’re also a huge part of eDiscovery protection, since the period of months or years a legal request can go back in corporate archives can embody an extensive wealth of business data.

Total recall essentials
The eDiscovery process also highlights why an archive solution is so important. In the event of an inquiry or an internal request for more insight on a current project by a third party for the purposes of a legal matter, the ability to recall and make use of data in the archive benefits the entire business in a myriad of ways. However, firms need to ensure they’re outfitting their archive options with the appropriate querying infrastructure to make these long term storage options viable. That means testing read and write times for a variety of different files types so that when put to the test, archives can stand up to the rigors of modern information recovery.

This has proven a massive problem for a variety of businesses, TechWorld reported. The source stated that a study by IDG Research found that the majority of corporate disaster recovery and data management solutions were considered inadequate by the IT professionals who maintained them. Much of the problem lies in the fact that well over half of all survey participants indicated they were running all of their backup, archive and management tools manually, rather than relying more heavily on automated maintenance and replication resources.

While having an archive is an essential part of continuity and compliance, micromanaging long term storage could create more problems than benefits. Implementing successful file tracking and data management policies will help ensure a safe and efficient operating environment for every company.

Edit:Sat, 25 May 2013 09:00:11 -0400

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