Advantages of Archiving Services over Tape
Archiving Advantages
- No off-site storage costs
- No travel expense or transportation costs
- No recall or retrieval costs
- Archives managed in-house at bank; no outside vendor or service costs
- Significant reduction in legal risk associated with data on tape becoming un-restorable, irretrievable, damaged or lost
- No need to retain outdated infrastructure and platforms for the sole purpose of accessing old tapes
- More timely deletion of destruction-eligible data
" I won't be able to access my data if I archive...."
FASLE Belief:... there will be no (or limited) access to archived data
TRUTH: You'll have immediate access to view and query your archived data
The biggest misconception about the archival of data is the erroneous belief that if you archive that you will lose access to your data. With current technology, this is no longer true. In fact, access to archived data is easier, less expensive and faster than access to data on tape. You can view and query your archive files in "real time", while access to data stored on tape can be a costly, time consuming , inconvenient process entailing transportation, retrieval and restoration
"Our tape backups are our archives...."
FALSE Belief:.... that backups to tape can serve as archives
TRUTH: Backups are NOT archives
Though the terms are often used interchangeable, "backups" are not "archives". By definition, they are fundamentally diffent: things.
"We've always written our data to tape ... we'll just keep doing that."
FALSE Belief:.... that it's an accetable practise to use tape for long term retention
TRUTH: Archiving services should be used for the long term preservation of data
For the long term retention of data, tape is no longer a reasonable or the best alternative from a cost or legal risk perspective.
"If we delete our data and the archive is damaged or corrupted ... we'll lost our data !"
FALSE Belief:... perhaps we shouldn't delete all copies of our data since there's only one archive copy
TRUTH: There will also be a disaster recovery copy of your archived data
DLMS Archiving is resilient; a DR version is created and stored at a separate facility than the primary archive. Holding on to copies of data at the original source after the archive has been successfully completed and validated is unnecessary, wasteful and exposes the bank to undue legal risk. A DR copy of your data is always safely stored in a different location
Which Data Should Be Archived ?
All data meant to be retained for long periods of time, including:
- Data which must be stored long term due to legal retention policies
- Inactive data accumulating- sitting unused - in production systems
- Data from decommisioned applications
- Data associaed with diversitures
DLMS ( Data Lifecycle Management Services )
DLMS is a highly focused and customer centric archiving team with excellent management.
Benefits of Pulling inactive Data from Production Systems
Removing and archiving inactive data from active applications
- Decreases unnecessary use of tape
- Creates room from your application to grow
- Reduces costs
- Less Purchase of new storage every year
- Less Volume to backup means less wasted tape
- Saves time - accelerated backups, shorter maintenance windows
- Smaller volume of data means easier management of entire system
- Eliminates waste of backup up, managing and maintaining data which never change and are no longer used
TAPES VS ARCHIVES
Tapes:
- low reliability
- Can be lost, stolen or damaged
- Deteriorate over time
- Can suffer magnetic damage
- Can stretch and become unreadable
- High failure rate
Arvhives:
- More reliable
- "Real time" access
- Less expensive
- Easier to manage
- Timelier data deletion
- Restoration not required for access
- Can query across archive files
The Difference between Archive and Backup
A "backup" is not an "archive"; they are completely different things. Understanding the difference between the two terms will help clarify why backups should not be considered or used as data archives
BACKUP: Backups are short term copies of active data meant to be used in the event of data loss due to system failure, disaster or error
ARCHIVE: Archives are meant for the long term preservation of inactive data retained for compliance and legal reasons
Archives are not copies of data at all.
Rather, archives contain data that are migrated - pulled and moved - from decommissioned applications or systems in production
Once the archive is complete and validated it becomes the new system of record (SOR) for the migrated data, which should be deleted from the original source
It is appropriate to use tape for short term backups
It is NOT appropriate to use tape for the long term archival of data
Storing data meant to be retained for long periods of time onto tape is risky, expensive and increases the danger of data loss resulting expensive remediation, regulatory penalties and legal fees
