Final Data Hoarding Thoughts
Jim writes today with insights gained by decades of consulting. I think he summarizes the whole topic quite nicely. In short, data hoarding is one of the lower priority issues compared to many other initiatives we have to manage for a business. The risk is not as high as the reward. The cost of removing the unused data is more than buying additional hardware. He says:
In some 35 years of consulting, I have seen many viable reasons to retain data (others have mentioned these) and a few to needlessly hoard data: timidity, priority and perceived value.
Purging data is frightening. Archiving data, especially without a restoration/reintegration process, is scary and often of no practical value. You won’t be punished for buying a few extra drives nor be faulted as system performance gradually degrades; but you will be skewered if a superior wants some bit of data that you’ve deleted.
Few IT organizations have the bandwidth to do data cleanup/cleanout. Too many bugs to fix, features to add, projects in queue, and, oh yes, headcount limits. Let it grow till it becomes a problem.
Resolve the emergency; accolades. Add new features; cheers. Reduce costs; bonuses. Deliver a new product; promotion. Keep the system running on an even keel; silence. Avoid costs; anonymity. Extend the useful life of an old (spell that: legacy, unsexy, boring) system; disregard. Which of these do you think most people will see as valuable?
The value of data, as for any business asset, can be assessed; that’s what BI analysis is all about. Even and especially for data mining, data value is tied to the business life cycle. As data ages, and particularly as the business changes, its detail transaction value generally depreciates. Aggregate value lasts longer, sometimes, indefinitely. Yesterday’s weather map is critical to predicting today’s weather; Monday’s tropical storm in Florida may be Friday’s rainy day in London; last year’s weather is useless for predicting tomorrow’s weather, but may help a farmer plan for the growing season or Harrods figure how many winter coats to stock.
Systems grow and change over time. Early data are less rich, less complete, less accurate than contemporary data. Absent the motivation to resolve these issues, keeping data beyond a few business cycles or legal/liability requirements is hoarding.
Should People Be Allowed to Delete Files from a Windows Server?
Today I was in the process of deleting a number of files on Windows Server 2008 R2. How fun. I was using Windows Explorer and selected a number of files, held down the shift key and pressed Delete to remove the files.
Dialog – Are you sure you want to remove these files (Default to true, press Y)
Dialog – Continue if you really want to delete these files (Default to true, press Enter)
Dialog – This command requires Administration permissions, do you want to accept this (Default No, Press Alt Y)
I think we need at least ten more prompts and lots more disk space, because it is clearly not in my best interest to delete a file. I clearly don’t have a clue about what I am doing and shouldn’t be deleting files.
How about a few other dialogs such as:
- What’s the Magic Word?
- Would you like to donate $1 to the Microsoft Institution for the insane people having tried to delete files?
- Did your boss say this was ok?
- Maybe you should simply mark these files for deletion, and really do it some other time?
- Why stop there, let’s format the whole drive and start over?
- Would you rather re-boot?
- I’m sorry Hal; I can’t do that.
- The last time you deleted files you wanted them back. Are you sure this time?
- If you delete files, do they really go away? Really?
- The following users have access to these files…did you check with them first?
- Please submit Voice Code for Authorization.
- I’ll delete the files if you’ll promise me that you will return them later?
- I’m tired of deleting files; can’t we do something else for once?
- We know what’s best for you. File deletion is really a thing of the past.
- May I recommend these other files for deletion too?
Well, now that I’m through with my little tantrum, I hope you have a great day. Thanks for putting up with my sarcasm. If you have a sarcastic bent, feel free to send me the dialogs you would like to see by writing to btaylor@sswug.org. Or, if you prefer, include a tweet with the tag #WinDeleteDialog.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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