So far these posts have been all about the concept of storing more of the raw data. I still think this is the direction things need to go. It’s a bit like cryogenic freezing for your data – you hope that new uses and solutions for that data will be discovered in the future. Or, you at least can see that that’s a possibility. Might be a strange analogy, but I hope it makes sense.
The discovery issues on the horizon aside, there are many different aspects to archiving the data – and some are increasingly going to come under the compliance umbrella – which also means additional care will have to be taken for that data.
Specifically, data storage approaches simply must apply to the information in your archives. This is something I’ve seen tripped over many times. Information is archived, but you can’t get to or use it.
– Encryption – if you’re encrypting information (and you’ll have to be and should already be) make sure you have the means to ACCESS that information later. This means your key management solution needs to function even after it’s gone through system updates, perhaps even architecture updates. Make sure you have key solutions and key archiving if needed. Make sure as you rotate keys, that you’re also re-encrypting archived data if needed. Otherwise, in a couple of years time, as you’ve already rotated out keys, your data will be flatly unusable.
– Software Versioning – if you’re keeping information around for significant periods of time, keep in mind that some of that may come from or be used by applications, devices and such that go through their own revisions. It could be that future releases are not compatible with prior data structures. Keep copies of the software you need.
– Passwords, documented structures – now we’re just heading down the “backup your stuff in a way that can be used later” path. It certainly applies here. If your data is backed up (archived) and you cannot access or use it, the process has failed.
The net-net is that I suspect that data is going to get an extended life on the whole. From discovery in support of business processes and decisions to being able to use it for new projects or in unknown ways in the future, it’s very important not to let that intellectual property slip through the cracks.
Just make sure you’re taking precautions too to make sure you can still access and use it.