ARCHIVING

Archiving is technically similar to backup, but its purpose is long-term retention, management, and discovery of fixed-content data to meet regulatory compliance, litigation protection, and storage cost optimization objectives. Archiving is not Backing up a computer. Database Archiving is the process of putting data on to a database to be kept over a long period of time and monitoring exactly who can use the data.

This is most likely to be limited to senior members of staff or those who are allocated to be able to use the data. The advantages of this is that the business can protect its key data as only a few people will be able to use it. Another benefit of this is the ability to be able to use the query function in the database to find the records or data that will need to be required. It also helps to meet legal requirements as data needs to be kept in a safe and secure place in order for the business to be able to hold key information about its clients and customers. It also helps to deal with any customer queries that may potentially last years or months.

The disadvantages of archiving is the fact that it might be very costly for a business to hold all that information, in addition to it being very difficult to make sure that it is secure and is not under threat by any hackers or unauthorized access. When archiving data it is important to keep in mind how the data was written and what it was written to. Keeping a copy of the applications used to write/read the data and moving the data to a device that will withstand extinction should be part of your plan.