Legal/ IT Disconnect: Data Archiving, Retention and Restoration by John Sharpe

Legal and IT departments are divided on many issues, and data archiving and restoration are no exception. In a recent study with IDC, Managing the Data Archive: Are IT and Lines of Business at Odds with Legal and Compliance?' we found that most companies maintain at least six data archives that internal departments approach in different ways. These data archives store many forms of information for future use, including: email, files, security logs and voicemail. Data may be stored onsite, remotely or through a cloud service. Active data archives offer protection from unexpected compliance and litigation events, while tape backups are critical for disaster recovery.

Legal and compliance departments heavily use data archives (with help from IT) to maintain regulatory compliance, access data for eDiscovery and audit requests, substantiate legal positions and aid early case assessment. IT departments, for their part, use archives to support business needs and continue their daily tasks. They are typically under major time crunches when approached by their legal departments to fulfill a request, putting pressure on their workforce and leaving little time for innovation.

Our study found that only 48% of legal and compliance respondents are satisfied with the way IT is managing their archives, despite the fact that 75% of IT management respondents believe they are satisfying their internal customers. Legal and compliance respondents are frustrated with their inability to access information, IT's determination of what to archive, on-demand access to the archives and more.

It's time to get everyone on the same page. But that's easier said than done. So let's determine what the major sticking points are here. The most prevalent, according to our survey, seems to be the need to access data quickly, when you need it. To do that, you need to know what's on your tapes, and you need to be able to find that information fast.

That's where Iron Mountain can help. Our Data Restoration Services can help. With our tape management services, for example, your IT team can focus on their daily tasks-and perhaps even have time for innovation. Legal and compliance departments don't have to worry when an eDiscovery request comes along-your data will be there when you need it. Learn more about how to access your archive data more effectively. Watch the video here.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2016/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
	See more stories from ironmountain

Most recent headlines