9. Why is Archiving So Important?

Document archiving is securely storing information (both digital and paper format) that you no longer use regularly.

It’s important because it:

· stops you losing data.

· ensures only the right people can access the right documents.

· keeps documents organised and easy to access.

· saves valuable storage space in your office and on your server.

· helps your business meet legal requirements for auditing.

The key reason to archive your documents is to avoid losing data. All documents are vulnerable to being destroyed or corrupted (if digital), either maliciously, by accident, or by a natural disaster, such as a flood or fire.

Electronic documents can be compromised by:

· security threats.

· software or hardware failure.

· Power failure.

· computer malfunctions

Paper documents can be lost through:

· theft.

· human error.

· an act of god

Correctly archiving documents prevents all of this, giving you peace of mind and ensuring that, should the worst happen, your data won’t be affected.

Archiving the right data can not only save your business money, but also add value to your business. Many organizations are hesitant to archive because they are uncertain which data to archive or afraid to archive data that should be left on primary storage.

However, not implementing an effective archive strategy is a missed opportunity, and deciding which data to archive should be a high priority for businesses with massive amounts of unstructured file data. Organizations without an archiving strategy may end up losing inactive data that is actually still valuable, and this is especially costly when recreating data is more expensive than archiving it.

For example, many life sciences organizations do not have an effective archive strategy, or any archive strategy at all, in place. This means that valuable data from old studies is irretrievable or lost, and the cost of recreating that data is immense.

With an effective archive strategy, organizations would be able to easily search for and access old data that continues to add value to the business over time.

Another main benefit of archiving is that organizations can save on expensive primary storage while retaining data important to the business, whether it may need to be accessed in the future or needs to be retained for regulatory compliance.

Archiving also reduces the volume of data on primary storage that needs to be backed up. This improves backup and restore performance while lowering secondary storage costs.

As enterprise datasets explode, freeing up space on primary storage is immensely valuable for constraining costs and data centre footprint. In addition, archives with search and retrieval capabilities make it much easier to find and access data when it does need to be used.