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In the past, companies have viewed backup and archive as the same process,
but they are two distinct processes. Backup is a periodic copy of
data taken in the event of a failure. Archives are for long-term
retention and management of digital information. Not only is their
role in the storage hierarchy different but so is their design and function.
When organizations treat backup as archive they introduce a tremendous
amount of risk into the preservation of key corporate information. The
long-term retention of valuable corporate digital assets is now subject
to backup policies and associated reliability concerns. Effective
discovery and recall of information from backup systems is impractical
at best and oftentimes impossible. And, we all understand that backup
processes and underlying technologies can be unreliable.
However, when organizations establish defined archives they create processes
to ensure that critical business information is sustained over time, and
easy to access. Archives are searchable and contain strong policy
management for retention and disposal. Well managed archives become
a source of value to business where backup is simply a safety net.
To learn more about the business process of archive, visit Business
Archive Management best practices section.
There are many unique advantages to treating archives separate from backup. These
include:
- Faster Backups – When static data is contained in
backups, it is copied every time a backup is made. For some organizations,
static data makes up 50% to 80% of their backup volume. By removing
this static data from the production backup workload, and maintaining
it on a managed archive, full backups run significantly faster – freeing
valuable resources.
- Search – When information is copied within backup
processes, it is at the mercy of the backup file formats. Typically,
these file formats are not easily searchable and can require a full data
restore. This process is time and labor consuming. True
archives contain global namespaces, consolidated indexes and robust search
functions to facilitate powerful search – saving you time and
money, and enabling e-discovery.
- Secure Second Copies – By using defined archives,
a secure second copy of archive information can be made. These
second copies fall under the policy management process of the archive
to ensure they are not accidentally deleted or tampered with. The
ability to implement an immutable secure second copy using backup is
difficult at best. A removable disaster recovery copy can also
be managed by the archive.
- Less Backup Resources – When static data is removed
from the backup process, and stored on an archive, fewer tapes, drives
and disk space are required to execute the primary backup process – saving
you time and money.
- Governance – When archived information is contained
in the backup process, backup and governance policies come in conflict. By
moving archive information out of the backup process, organizations can
manage key data governance concerns more effectively and e-discovery
requirements can easily be met.
Over the last 20 years, Plasmon has worked with leading companies to build
world-class business archives. We have taken this experience and
transformed it into a series of best practices to guide organizations. If
you are interested in creating an archive infrastructure, read about Business
Archive Management. These
best practices will help you take the steps to move away from trying to
use backup as an archive to a true professional grade archive.
Business Archive Management White Paper - click
here to learn more
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Archiving
Defined 
