The Problem with Backup-as-Archive by Jennifer Burl

If there's one issue every organization across the world is facing, it's data growth. With the amount of data quickly growing, it can be difficult to determine what to keep, where to keep it and how long to keep it. Overall, the consensus is: you must effectively use both archive and backup strategies to achieve the best results. You can't simply use backup-as-archive, however.

Your organization has probably been investing in backup operations for some time now, but if you're leaving archive by the wayside, you're making things harder on yourself. Archiving can actually remove some of the burden from backup operations, and once you archive, there's no need to back up that data ever again.

So, how do you know what backup strategy and what archive strategy are best for your company? Start with the classic definition that backup is used for rapid restoration of data that has been lost or damaged in some way and archiving is used for long term preservation of data. These are two different processes and strategies that both should be regularly performed and that complement each other very well.

We recommend archiving your data for long-term strategic value such as to satisfy an external regulatory or legal request in the future. Organizations (and personnel within them) that view this data as important for compliance, operational or legal functions tend to archive regularly. But there are some common data archiving mistakes you must avoid when doing so.

One of the most common data archival mistakes is thinking of your backup as your archive. These two data management approaches are very different, and they must be treated as so. They cannot be thought of as interchangeable. Think about it; despite the fact that data from one or several years ago is often required to address compliance issues (archive), servers rarely need to be restored using backups that are years old.

Backups are created as recovery tools, but they can be used to reference older copies of data. Because of this, some organizations think of their backups as archives. This philosophy is problematic because backup media data was meant for software programs to read-not people. It can't be trusted to support the same goals as a true data archive.

When determining which data to archive and which to back up, keep the following ideas in mind:

Determine the potential ramifications of not including data archival as one of your data management strategies. What would happen if you're unable to retrieve the data requested by regulatory bodies or required during eDiscovery?

Involve personnel across your company in a shared conversation about what should be kept, for how long and for what purpose. Ask questions, and determine what's best for your unique needs.

Achieving a balance between backup and archive is a difficult battle, and you need a trusted, experienced partner to help you along the way. For more information about how you can create a recovery plan in which backup and archival strategies are complementary, tune in to our recent webinar Everyone Should Archive, but How and with Whom?, featuring data management expert Jason Buffington (@Jbuff) of ESG.

Or, if you're ready to get started creating a more efficient backup/archival strategy today, feel free to contact the friendly experts at Iron Mountain. We'll be happy to help.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2015/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
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