It’s estimated that the world will soon be producing 463 exabytes of data each day. This amount of data is so large it’s nearly impossible for us to wrap our heads around it.
While there’s no denying that some of this information is useful, the vast majority of it isn’t being used on a daily or even yearly basis. Whether you’re a business or a freelancer, data archiving can help you make needed storage space without getting rid of documents and data you might need in the future.
But exactly what is data archiving? And what are the reasons to archive? In this guide, we’ll teach you some of the basics behind this important storing method.
What Is Data Archiving?
Data archiving is the process of organizing and storing data you might need for long-term reasons. This is data that typically isn’t used for daily tasks, but still needs to be kept around.
Often this is for regulatory reasons. Typically this includes document files, but other types of data can include database records, web pages, and emails. There are different types of archive systems used for this purpose.
Some don’t allow you to change any of the data on the documents once it’s archived. Others allow you to re-open the archive to write and make changes.
What Are the Benefits?
The biggest benefit of storing files is likely the cost. Primary storage can get quite expensive, especially if you’re using it on files you don’t use all that often. Archival storage, on the other hand, is much more affordable.
That’s because this type of data is much less high-performance. As such, it can be stored on inexpensive things like low-cost hard copy disk drives that don’t have particularly high-performance requirements since they’re an on-site backup.
Archiving data also reduces the amount that you need to back up. This, in turn, can improve your overall performance. Lastly, it helps maintain compliance in certain industries, like the legal and healthcare markets.
How Do You Archive Your Data?
When you begin archiving your data, the first thing you need is standardization. Ideally, you want all your data to be in one searchable form of digital files. PDFs are great file formats for data archives.
Not only are they low storage space, but you can also take a variety of documents and reports and generate PDF in C#. Once you have a uniform file structure, you can choose archival software.
Just make sure that you choose archival tools that have security measures in place. This is especially important for compliance reasons if you’re handling potentially sensitive data.
Lastly, it should be scalable. That way, you’re able to add data to it as you see fit whenever you need to.
Appreciate Learning About Data Archiving? Keep Exploring
We hope this guide helped you answer the question, What is data archiving? As people continue to produce more data each day the need for an archive system only grows more pertinent.
As such, when you start data archiving your relevant documents, you can get ahead of the curve and save yourself a lot of work. Want more tech advice? Keep exploring to find more relevant content on our website.
