Office Memo 7
Office Memo 7
15 July 2003
Trustworthy records
Much has been written recently about archival data storage technologies, but little about how integrate them into a long-term data storage strategy.
This is not an issue confined purely to the IT department but one that reaches far beyond. There are significant legal and business implications to retaining important corporate and governmental records. Government agencies, industry regulators and corporations have recently introduced a flood of new regulations and guidelines about doing so.
Financial institutions are now required to keep mortgage loan files for up to 10 years after the loan has been repaid. Some medical records must be stored for the life of the patient. Government institutions have to keep certain records for up to 50 years. The US National Archives and Records Administration is making some of its records permanent.
Regulations typically specify retention times. They require records to be genuine, unaltered, readily accessible, dated and in a readable format. Some regulations also require a second copy of each original to be saved in a separate location. This is to protect the data from catastrophic site failure.
Complying with these new laws and regulations is no small task. Not only must organizations physically store the records, they must also keep a full history or audit trail. This must show where changes have been made.
When called on, organizations must also be able to map out a 'corporate memory' of significant actions and events. This will include anything important to the history of the company, affecting its past decisions or continuing to influence its future running. Typical documents will include contracts, agreements, customer records, design specifications and emails. The overriding need is that records satisfy the legal definition of authenticity and are accurate, reliable and trustworthy.
With these new rules have come costly penalties. These have occasionally resulted in high visibility court cases that have seriously damaged corporate reputations. Five international brokerage houses were recently fined $8.25 million for inadequate email archive procedures. A major corporation was fined $1million for destroying court-ordered records. These examples show just how disruptive and expensive the mismanagement or loss of vital records can be.
How can companies ensure that their archiving of electronic records meets the standards for their industry and keeps their company on the right side of the law? The key lies in developing an archiving plan.
Archival storage is often overlooked until a crisis is looming. At this point, many IT managers respond by adding more magnetic disk or buying another tape drive. This approach will not meet the need for a long-term, trustworthy archive. It also puts the company at risk of prosecution if it cannot produce data when asked. Organizations need to draw up an archiving plan, covering hardware, software and process accountability, that meets legal or corporate demands and guidelines.
The first stage is to identify exactly what the organization needs to do to ensure that records are authentic when stored and recovered. It is no good being able to store information if you cannot access it in 5 to 10 years. Equally, it is of no use to anyone if you can retrieve the records but cannot show their integrity. Either failure can result in serious legal and business consequences.
One important element in establishing trustworthiness is to select the correct storage medium for the task. Since there are dramatically different site needs, no one storage technology will fit all archive environments. Optical, tape and even magnetic disk storage have a place.
As in other areas of computing, it is critical for companies to consider the demands of their business before listening to hardware sellers. Often, these are trying to force-fit their technology to the requirement or redefining the requirement to suit their products. The wrong choice could prove costly.
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Steve Tongish, Marketing Director (EMEA) of Plasmon Data, contributed this article. Our thanks go to him.
Plasmon is exhibiting at Storage Expo. This is the United Kingdom's largest data storage event and takes place at Olympia, London, on 15 and 16 October 2003.
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