Reactive Business Archive Management

Key attributes of Reactive organizations

» Archived information resides in independent silos, e.g., e-mail,
   files, medical images
» Tape backup still serves as the archive for a majority of
   information
» Regulatory compliance is possible, but requires significant
   manual effort
» Archiving is given little attention until a specific request arises
» Fire drills are common for discovery requests
» Discovery across multiple archive domains may be possible,
   but is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive

Reactive Business Archive Management works but is inefficient, risky, and costly
From a bare bones perspective, Reactive Business Archive Management can work. Basic business archive requirements are being managed and you have a limited ability to satisfy information requests. However, since the archives are usually maintained in silos, storage resources are used very inefficiently. And since Reactive organizations have very little coordination between their IT and business groups, there are still significant corporate governance concerns.

Benefits of moving to Sustaining Business Archive Management
It is highly advantageous for all organizations to advance to the Sustaining stage of Business Archive Management. The benefits of making this transition include the following:

» Ability to comply with most, if not all, government regulations
   and corporate governance requirements
» Reduced business and legal risks
» Less manual effort to manage archives lowers costs and frees
   up the IT staff for other tasks
» Lower storage costs as archived data is moved from primary
   storage to cost-effective, long-term permanent storage

Take the Business Archive Management Assessment to learn if your organization is Reactive, and discover practical recommendations on how to improve your archiving processes.