Every organization aims to grow and increase its customers base, but the growth comes with new challenges. For example, the growth means more data on the company servers, and the company must figure out how to deal with it. As time goes by, some data becomes less useful, and it’s rarely accessed; this means it’s using the organization’s primary storage space without generating much value. When a company is faced with such challenges, an archiving system software comes in handy. This article discusses how archiving data can help your organization remain on the safe side of the law.
Data archiving explained
Data archiving is the process of transferring data from primary storage to other storage devices so that it can be retained for an extended period. Data that is rarely accessed and modified is moved from the primary storage so that it can free up the room for regularly-used data and reduce the cost of storage. Archiving system software makes the process easier.
Though archiving data is primarily seen a strategy of reducing the cost of primary storage, it is also a way of ensuring compliance with the law and ensuring that your organization has the evidence to defend itself in case legal suits and audits come up in future. In that regard, it’s catastrophic to destroy rarely-used data or store in a way that’s hard to trace and access.
Data storage compliance
Amid rampant cybersecurity threats, many states and industry regulatory bodies have enacted strict data storage laws; these laws are aimed at ensuring that organizations do enough to protect the data in their hands. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires organizations in the financial sector to have strategies in place to ensure unauthorized parties do not access customer financial data and personal information. Further, the organizations should update their customers on the strategies they are employing to keep their data safe.
In the health sector, HIPAA rules require health organizations to store customer’s electronic health records in a way that ensures confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Health centers are also required to protect the electronic records from any anticipated data breaches. Non-compliance with HIPAA rules attracts heavy penalties as outlined in the HITECH Act.
If your company is planning to expand to Europe, data security should be at the center of your considerations as the recently-enacted GDPR rules have strict rules for companies that show negligence in the handling of customer data. The penalties are more stringent than those in the US, and they include revocation of the operating license.
Data archiving focuses on data on security and ease of access. The primary storage system is accessed by many people in the day-to-day activities of the business. It can, therefore, be modified or deleted by the employees, intentionally or unintentionally. Also, the fact that the data is in circulation increases the risk of a data breach. On the other side, access to archived data is restricted to only a few parties. Some data archiving systems store data in read-only format to prevent data modification.
The bottom line
As your organization grows, the data on the company’s primary servers increase; this may affect the performance of the servers and increase the cost of data storage. You should not delete rarely-used data as it might put you at a disadvantage when auditors or complaints come knocking. Archiving system software helps companies store rarely-used data in a manner that reduces the risk of a data breach and ensures ease of access.
