What is a Data Archiving System?
Data Archiving or content archiving as it is often referred, is a computerised system that enables an organisation to retain critical information including documents, databases, financial data and any other information that may well be required for use or inspection at some point.
Why do I need it?
Certain types of organisations have to comply with legislation and codes of practice and keep a record of important information for a number of years. Furthermore, it can free up space on your existing computer network cost effectively ensuring that you won’t need to purchase further costly servers.
What Procedures should I put in place?
You will need to ensure that a data retention policy is in place. This needs to drafted by HR, IT and legal departments or by a specialist organisation.
How will I know what to archive?
Every department will place a ‘value’ on their information i.e. what should be stored. What is important to one person may not be to someone else. As a result, you must involve all those elements within a company and agree to what should be retained. From an administrative perspective, that person must be fully capable of recognising the ‘value’ of that information.
From that point, you can decide what to keep, delete or purge.
Who should have access to the content of the material that has been archived?
This will depend on the information. User rights will allow certain information to be accessed by particular users.
How do I find the right vendor or reseller?
Conjungo is a great starting point because it will let you search for a supplier according to your location, company type, size and whether they have the right accreditations. Furthermore, Conjungo is completely unbiased, lists most of the major vendors’ resellers and it is free to use.
Is it something that I can install myself?
It can get quite complicated so you may wish to take advice. It may be more economical in the long term to make sure that it is set up correctly by using a supplier than waste much of your valuable time trying to do so. It is important to get the system set up correctly, right from the beginning.
Is a data archive easy to use?
It should be! Depending on the system users should be able to access the information easily.
What about the Data Protection Act?
You must be particularly careful with certain records, and for example, employee details should be kept secure (with HR) in order not to contravene the Data Protection Act.
How will I know if my organisation is regulated in some way?
You can either ask your lawyer, accountant or potentially a trade body that deals with your type of company.
Do the regulations and codes of practice apply to small companies?
Small organisations need to be aware of all of the issues and codes of practice that might have an impact on their company. The law applies to all organisations regardless of size.