What isn’t Qualified Electronic Archiving or Digital Preservation?

Very often, when we talk to prospects, and we ask them how they handle “Digital Archiving”, the response is: “We’ve got that covered! We have a solution for e-mail archiving.” Or “We already have a backup solution”.

In fact, those are indeed solutions that your organization might need, but they aren’t Digital Preservation solutions. And to make things worse, there are plenty of solutions out there that refer to themselves as being “Electronic” or “Digital Archiving”.?

For the simplicity of things I’ll refer to Digital Preservation instead of Qualified Electronic Archiving. Let’s consider QeA as Digital Preservation with some “add-ons” for additional Trust.?

Digital Preservation or Qualified Electronic Archiving

Digital preservation is vital to ensure long-term access and usability of digital assets, safeguarding valuable data, protecting cultural heritage, and ensuring future generations can access and learn from our digital information.

QeA applies the same principles but combines them with some additional needs in the context of the eIDAS regulation. QeA focuses more on the legal retention period (which can be Long-Term), but adds additional requirements with regard to guaranteeing the authenticity and integrity of information. QeA also adds retention management and records disposal.

Of course, the comparison is a bit more complicated, but that I’ve explained in an earlier article.?

And to make things even worse, I consider Digital Archiving as an activity, not as a solution.?

Main Functionalities of Digital Preservation:

These are requirements that should be covered by a proper Digital Preservation solution:

??- Actively manage and maintain digital assets.

??- Address challenges like file format obsolescence.

??- Ensure ongoing accessibility and usability of digital content.

??- Maintain metadata and necessary context for data usage.

??- Uphold the authenticity of digital assets to ensure their reliability and trustworthiness.

So, what isn’t Digital Preservation:

1. Backup

???-Purpose: To prevent data loss from hardware failure, accidental deletion, or other immediate threats.

???- What It Does: Creates copies of data for restoration in case of loss.

???- What It Lacks:

?????- Doesn’t address long-term preservation challenges.

?????- No solution for file format obsolescence.

?????- Limited in maintaining context and metadata.

2. Digital Archiving

???- Purpose: To collect, organize, store, and manage digital assets for long-term retention.

???- What It Does: Organizes and protects digital content, including documents, images, videos, etc.

???- What It Lacks:

?????- May not address format migration and emulation.

?????- Limited in ensuring long-term access and usability.

3. Cloud Storage

???- Purpose: To provide scalable and flexible storage solutions for digital assets.

???- What It Does: Allows users to store and access data on remote servers via the internet. We could consider most e-mail archiving solutions as a solution of this kind.

???- What It Lacks:

?????- Possible limitations in addressing file format obsolescence.

?????- May not retain necessary context and metadata for future use.

4. File Format Conversion

???- Purpose: To ensure compatibility of digital assets with current software and hardware.

???- What It Does: Converts files from one format to another.

???- What It Lacks:

?????- Possible information loss during conversion.

?????- Doesn’t ensure ongoing access and usability.

5. Document Management System (DMS)

???- Purpose: To store, manage, and track electronic documents.

???- What It Does: Provides an organized way to handle digital documents, catering to the current needs of an organization.

???- What It Lacks:

?????- Primarily focuses on current organizational needs.

?????- Limited in addressing file format obsolescence and long-term accessibility.

?????- May not maintain necessary metadata and context.

6. Records Management System (RMS)

???- Purpose: To manage records throughout their lifecycle, from creation to disposal.

???- What It Does: Organizes and manages records, ensuring compliance with records retention policies.

???- What It Lacks:

?????- Designed with current organizational needs and compliance in mind.

?????- Limited in addressing long-term digital preservation requirements.

?????- May not cover all aspects of format migration, emulation, and accessibility.

In short, most of the aforementioned solutions are a part of a good Digital Preservation environment, while a Document Management System can be an information source and can integrate as a producer with a Digital Preservation solution. A Records Management solution, however, becomes rather superfluous when a Qualifed Electronic Archiving solution is added to the landscape.?