What Is Data Archiving And Protection

Data storage solutions offer a safe place to store critical information, retrieving it when needed. Storage for archives also decreases the amount of data that needs to be stored. 

Archive storage is optimized to efficiently ingest data and minimize data access, with an emphasis on capacity rather than performance.

From the highest-end to the lowest-end of the storage hierarchy, stored data remains highly available and safe. 

Archive stores data in systems that are not nearly as fast or as easy to access as data archiving systems, making it a less costly storage option. Some systems make use of on-line data storage, where stored data is placed on disk systems, where it is easily accessed.

In contrast, data archiving is where you keep historic data that is not being used anymore actively, and make sure that it is easily available. Scientific, scholarly, and research institutions typically keep and store lots of data. Therefore, archives capable of housing that amount of data are becoming more and more valuable.

Archiving data is a good solution to ensuring that valuable, but occasionally used, data is kept secure without taking up costly resources. If the data you are archiving is not stale, but rather simply rarely accessed, transparent solutions where data appears to be stored at the original location may lessen impact to employees. 

Storing that data, and storing it on the servers of most organizations, ultimately can harm productivity in a competitive environment, becoming a drag on how quickly employees can get their jobs done, as well as their ability to access videos, emails, and messages. 

For one, data archiving allows for a much cheaper way of storing information, whether it is stored on off-site servers or in the cloud, thanks to tiered options of storage costs. A data archiving strategy cuts down on the amount of storage at the core, allowing the organization to retain data that might be required for regulatory requirements or other needs. 

Before embarking on a data archiving strategy, consider the objectives, which could include cost reduction, increased security of data required to be retained for regulatory purposes, or optimization of the production storage systems operation. 

A data archiving plan is an essential component of a data lifecycle management policy, providing you a method of maintaining information while staying within a reasonable storage budget.

Organizations may use data archiving for retaining information in the aggregate, as well as retaining information necessary to comply. Archived data is composed of older data that remains relevant to an organization, or must be retained for future reference, or because of compliance with regulations

Typically, the retention policy for backups is around 30 days, but archived data can remain for much longer periods of time before being destroyed. Data Backups are used for saving and storing changed data, as well as recovering and restoring lost files. 

A data backup is a copy of the data created with the intent to secure and restore data. Storage technologies can be used for data protection by using disk, tape, or cloud-based backups to securely hold copies of data which can be used if data is lost or disrupted. 

Storing data on separate, centrally managed storage media lowers organizations risk of losing this data permanently and facing the loss of crucial information and legal consequences.

Companies utilize data storage at the end of the specified retention period for several reasons, including compliance with laws (since stored data is traceable), protecting against data loss, and storage cost reduction. 

Using archive policies, the administrator makes sure data moving to the storage location follows appropriate standards and regulatory requirements. An archive policy should be created to define the rules underlying data movement.

For that reason, compliance remains the number one reason for data storage for those organizations operating in an industry where regulations are imposed, in which stringent laws govern electronic records storage, and dictate stringent periods for storage when records are required to be maintained and made available. 

Data stored in archives needs to be protected against loss, corruption, breaches, and theft. Effective archives maintain only as much data as is needed in order to minimize resource usage and liability, and the amount of effort or time required for data retrieval.