How can you select the best data retention schedule for your system?

1 Assess your data

The first step is to assess your data and classify it according to its type, value, and purpose. For example, you may have different categories of data, such as personal, financial, operational, historical, or analytical. Each category may have different retention needs and priorities, depending on how often you use it, how sensitive it is, and how much it contributes to your business goals. You should also consider the format and size of your data, as they may affect the storage and retrieval costs and efficiency.

2 Review the legal and regulatory requirements

The second step is to review the legal and regulatory requirements that apply to your data and your industry. Depending on your location, sector, and customers, you may have to comply with certain laws and standards that dictate how long you must keep your data, how you must protect it, and how you must dispose of it. For example, you may have to follow the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the US, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) in the e-commerce industry. You should consult with your legal and compliance teams to ensure that you meet the relevant obligations and avoid penalties.

3 Evaluate the storage capacity and budget

The third step is to evaluate the storage capacity and budget that you have available for your data retention. Depending on the amount and type of data that you need to retain, you may have to choose between different storage options, such as on-premise, cloud, or hybrid. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, in terms of performance, scalability, security, and cost. You should compare the benefits and risks of each option and select the one that best suits your needs and resources.

4 Define the backup and recovery strategy

The fourth step is to define the backup and recovery strategy that you will use to ensure the availability and integrity of your data. Backup and recovery are essential for data retention, as they allow you to restore your data in case of loss, corruption, or disaster. However, backup and recovery also have an impact on your data retention schedule, as they determine how frequently and how long you will keep copies of your data. You should consider the recovery point objective (RPO) and the recovery time objective (RTO) of your system, which are the maximum acceptable data loss and downtime in case of an incident. You should also consider the backup frequency, location, format, and retention period, which are the factors that affect the backup cost and efficiency.

6 Use tools and automation

The sixth step is to use tools and automation to simplify and streamline your data retention process. Managing data retention manually can be time-consuming, error-prone, and inconsistent. You should leverage the tools and automation that your system and storage providers offer, or use third-party solutions, to automate and standardize your data retention tasks. For example, you can use tools to classify, tag, and index your data, to apply retention policies and rules, to schedule and execute backups and deletions, to monitor and report on your data retention status, and to audit and verify your data retention compliance.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?