Data Archiving
Archive to reduce storage costs and meet legal/compliance needs.
Archiving involves moving inactive or infrequently accessed data from primary storage to low-cost storage tiers. This preserves the data for long-term retention while optimizing system performance and reducing costs.
Benefits of Archiving
- 🧊 Cost Reduction: Moves data to cheaper storage options.
- 🚀 Performance Optimization: Frees up primary storage for active data.
- 📜 Compliance Support: Meets legal and regulatory retention requirements.
Common Use Cases
Email Archiving
Especially relevant for regulated industries and large enterprises.
- Legal Discovery: Archived email can be retrieved during litigation.
- Regulatory Compliance: Aligns with standards like SOX, SEC 17a-4.
- Storage Management: Reduces mailbox sizes and improves email server performance.
Cloud Archiving Solutions
Cloud providers offer tiered storage with archiving features that scale easily and integrate with compliance tools.
Major Providers
AWS
- Amazon S3 Glacier / Glacier Deep Archive
- Ideal for long-term, infrequent access
- Low cost, high durability
- Retrieval times range from minutes to hours
Microsoft Azure
- Azure Archive Storage
- Designed for compliance, backup, and archival
- Supports rehydration to hot tiers when needed
Google Cloud
- Cloud Storage Archive Tier
- Long-term storage at the lowest cost
- Integrated with lifecycle management and IAM policies
Considerations for Choosing a Cloud Archive
Not all archive storage is immediately accessible. Understand retrieval times and costs.
- Data retrieval needs (speed vs. cost)
- Compliance requirements (e.g., data residency, encryption)
- Integration with existing tools (eDiscovery, DLP)
- Lifecycle policies and automation support
Summary
Archiving is a key strategy for efficient data lifecycle management. Pairing it with cloud solutions enables scalable, compliant, and cost-effective storage for the long term.
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