File Archiving

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Want to know which files to archive? Why not try this free to download tool from File Archive specialists, BridgeHead Software Free File Analysis Tool

File Archiving and backup address different business problems. The purpose of backup is to create copies of the online environment that can be recovered rapidly in the event of failure or data loss. Backup is oriented towards storing and moving large amounts of data and it does not purport to make data in backup save sets immediately available. The purpose of File archiving is to provide an alternate, secure place for data that must be kept for long periods of time.

File Archiving provides a granular level of management over data that backup does not. Not only can each data entity put in the archive be retained, migrated, and stored according to its own rules, but the archive ensures that the data can be quickly located and restored. Ultilising NexStor's File Archiving concept, archived data does not need to be backed up routinely because the archive consists of multiple repository copies, some of which can be removed or located offsite alongside backup tapes.

File Archiving lets IT define and enforce unlimited rules for any logical data set to ensure that:

  • Primary disk is optimally utilized.
  • Secondary copies of data exist on any combination of media and at multiple locations in compliance with internal and external data availability standards.
  • Archived Files are accessible either transparently or “actively” depending on end-user and application needs.

Which factors are driving the need for archiving in your organisation?

  • 58% of respondents cite ‘regulatory compliance’
  • 62% for data growth and a whopping
  • 70% for disaster recovery/business continuity.

Average primary storage data volumes have continued to grow, with 7% more respondents reporting volume of more than five terabytes (TB), and a corresponding fall in respondents reporting volumes less than 5TB. At the top end, almost 60% more respondents than in 2005 report primary storage data volumes of more than 15TB - up from 7% to 11% of all respondents. It seems likely that the need to deal with such increases explains why ‘data growth’ has been a greater driver for archiving than compliance.

Such results from 2006 bear out predictions from the 2005 research. Then, respondents gave the strong impression that archiving was on their agenda and the benefits in terms of compliance and other regulations were being recognised: 49% agreed they would be looking at email archiving over the coming twelve months and 43% at file archiving. In 2006, these figures have risen to 57% (up 8%) and 55% (up 12%) respectively.

An almost universally held opinion is that archive data volumes will continue to rise, with almost no one predicting a fall. In 2005, “don’t know” was the response of an astonishing one third of respondents, a figure that has now fallen to just over a fifth.

Tony Cotterill, CEO of BridgeHead Software, said: “One area of potential concern is that the high response for ‘archiving’ with tape might actually come from IT departments continuing to use tape-based backups as their strategy for long-term data retention. While the removability and relatively long lifecycle of tape lends itself to data archiving, the use of backup software is a major mismatch. Backup simply doesn’t have the granular data management functionality to address compliant data level retention, destruction, access control, or authentication needs over long periods. Most users would agree that simply finding and restoring data after a few months is onerous and often unfeasible with backup software and that is one of the basic functions of a good archive tool.

“On the other hand,” Cotterill added, “archiving products capable of automatically maintaining access-ready copies of data repositories at the disaster recovery site can allow a major portion of data to be available after a disaster without the need for routine and large-scale backup and replication. Maybe the market is now starting to understand this concept.”

For help and advice with your File Archiving needs contact NexStor today

Did you know that unstructured data makes up over 80% of an organisations information store? Did you also know that on average over 85% of this data as not been look at/opened in over 90 days?

Imagine the impact on your IT environment if you could remove this static data from both your primary storage and backup regime? NexStor can offer a solution that will allow you to send multiple copies of these “old” files to multiple remote locations at the same time.  

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