How do you align your data archiving and backup policies with your business goals and needs?

1 Data archiving vs backup

Data archiving and backup are often confused, but they have distinct purposes and benefits. Data archiving is the process of moving data that is no longer actively used or needed to a separate storage system, where it can be accessed for future reference or legal reasons. Data backup is the process of copying data that is currently in use or needed to another storage system, where it can be restored in case of loss, corruption, or disaster. Data archiving helps you reduce storage costs, improve performance, and comply with regulations, while data backup helps you ensure data availability, integrity, and recovery.

2 Data lifecycle management

To align your data archiving and backup policies with your business goals and needs, you need to understand the lifecycle of your data, and how its value and relevance change over time. Data lifecycle management (DLM) is a framework that helps you classify, organize, and manage your data according to its stages, from creation to deletion. DLM can help you identify what data you need to archive, what data you need to backup, how frequently, and for how long. DLM can also help you optimize your storage resources, security, and compliance.

3 Data archiving policy

A data archiving policy should be tailored to your business goals and needs, such as reducing storage costs, improving performance, meeting regulatory requirements, and preserving historical records. When creating a policy, you should consider the type, size, and format of the data, the frequency and duration of access to the data, the retention period and deletion criteria for the data, the storage location and media for the data, the encryption, compression, and deduplication methods for the data, and the indexing, metadata, and search capabilities for the data. Doing so will ensure that your data archiving policy is effective in meeting all of your business needs.

4 Data backup policy

A data backup policy is an essential element of your business, as it outlines what data you will backup, when, where, and how. It should align with your goals and needs, such as ensuring data availability, integrity, and recovery, while minimizing downtime and data loss. The policy should also consider the criticality, volatility, and change rate of the data; the recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO); the backup frequency and schedule; the backup location and media; the encryption, compression, and deduplication methods; and the verification, testing, and restoration procedures for the data.

5 Data archiving and backup solutions

Depending on your data archiving and backup policies, you may need different solutions to implement them effectively and efficiently. There are various types of storage systems and media that you can use for data archiving and backup, such as tapes, disks, cloud, or hybrid. There are also various types of software and tools that you can use for data archiving and backup, such as native, third-party, or open-source. You should evaluate the features, benefits, and costs of each solution, and choose the ones that best suit your business goals and needs.

6 Data archiving and backup best practices

To ensure that your data archiving and backup policies are aligned with your business goals and needs, and that they are executed properly and consistently, you should document and communicate your policies to all stakeholders. Additionally, you should review and update your policies regularly to reflect changes in your data and business environment. Automating and scheduling your archiving and backup processes can help reduce human errors and save time. Moreover, monitoring and auditing your archiving and backup activities can ensure compliance and performance. Lastly, testing and verifying your archiving and backup systems can ensure reliability and recoverability.

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?