Declare Freedom From High Costs & Risks
By Throwing Out Data Now

Do you have mountains of information stored on your server that you’ll never use, but feel like you should keep? You are not alone. Given expanding regulatory rules, some businesses save every bit of data they have, just to be safe.

You may be thinking, “What’s the big deal in keeping everything?” While it is true off-site data storage costs have gone down by about 25% every year, the fact is that keeping your data forever can create big management challenges and lead to retrieval headaches. Most often companies that save everything don’t do so because they think it’s the best way, but because they aren’t sure what needs to be saved.

Every organization needs to save data for its own purposes, such as transactions, accounting records and so on. Not only that, but industry regulations require companies to save certain kinds of content for a prescribed period.

So what should you be doing? Here are 4 data-retention strategies you must consider:

  1. Start with the storage analysis, not the storage technology or procedures.
    Know what data has to be kept and for how long. Many times requirements are dictated by industry or legal requirements.
  2. Segment user populations.
    Use categories such as executives, back-office employees, sales and people who deal with the company’s intellectual property and treat their data differently.
  3. Be precise and consistent with data-retention policies.
  4. Don’t confuse backup with archiving.
    Since backup systems don’t generally have the granular control needed to save some types of information for a short time and others for longer, using them as archival systems can be costly and risky.