Mitigating risk in data archiving

Mike Koclanes CSO of Plasmon on how to obtain peace of mind when it comes to your businesses data assets.

There is a shared understanding that the explosion of data has rapidly increased the complexity of today’s business environments. Add to this the explosion of regulations dictating how data assets are treated and the problem gets even more complicated and relevant to CIOs and executive management at organizations across industries.

Businesses, and more specifically the IT environment within a business, have not historically been subject to a great deal of regulation. There are now more than 20,000 regulations that impact how records are created, stored, accessed and maintained. Failure to properly comply with these regulations not only costs millions of dollars, but also puts the future of the organization and its executives on the line.

As the disaster recovery moniker continues to be debated and surveys reveal how many IT departments are prepared, or not, for a disaster, we can start to expand the definition of what constitutes a disruptive event when taking compliance and industry regulations into account.  For example, is a legal discovery process in which the data can’t be retrieved considered a disaster recovery event? The bottom line for healthcare executives becomes how they are addressing data identification, protection and management requirements today regardless of the reason.

A critical part of this process is archiving. Whether a business is dealing with recovering from a natural disaster, responding to a legal discovery process or simply following HIPPA regulations, an archiving strategy is an organizational imperative. Many businesses think they are archiving their data by performing backups. Traditional backups are not the same as an archive strategy and typically fall short of meeting requirements for random access, longevity, permanence, authenticity and cost.

An effective archive strategy driven by business requirements is vital to mitigating business risk. This strategy involves employing permanent media, utilizing a combination of technologies for backup and long-term data retention, and storing an off-site copy of current data. Using technologies specifically designed for long-term archiving and permanence is key to implementing a successful solution. 

Finding and retrieving older documents in support of e-discovery requests is nearly impossible with a tape backup solution, not to mention the issues that can arise with more traditional types of ‘disasters’. Magnetic tape deteriorates over time and copies have to be rebuilt and copied to a fresh cartridge frequently. There are countless stories about how data stored on tape deteriorates overtime and valuable data is irretrievably lost.

This is the same case today with several disk-only archiving products that are used for the preservation of data records. RAID disk has a lifespan of only three to five years and typically does not make a good long-term archive. There is a lot of data migration that has to take place when the disk array needs to be replaced, resulting in a drain on business and IT resources. Finally, disk archive solutions can be upwards of three times the cost of other archive solutions and do not provide the reliability, compliant authentication, and proven long-term retention required.

A more stable and reliable approach to archiving includes a non-magnetic media that is much less sensitive to environmental conditions and requires no proactive maintenance. One type of this archive media is UDO, which is often referred to as the gold standard for record authenticity, since it is physically impossible to modify the data once written. With a proven lifespan of over 50 years, this archive solution provides long-term protection of critical information assets, supports efficient and effective regulatory compliance practices and creates business value for your environment. Furthermore, UDO solutions support ‘green’ initiatives in an organization’s infrastructure by decreasing power consumption and reducing the carbon footprint.

Beyond the specific technology that is used, it is important to have a strategy that protects critical information assets, supports efficient and effective corporate governance and creates value.

Taking a closer look at the issues that result from the increase in regulations and the general explosion of data, it becomes clear that managing this growth within new constraints plays a significant role in protecting valued assets, resolving regulatory risk, and providing cost savings to the business.

Mike Koclanes is Chief Strategy Officer at Plasmon, a provider of cost effective enterprise-class active archive solutions. Previously, he was CEO and CTO of CreekPath Systems Inc, an early innovator in storage management software.