Backup And Archiving: A Perspective On The Future

With all eyes on the future, smart CIOs are taking a long, hard look at their backup and archiving strategies— and asking a lot of tough questions.

What data needs to be recovered? How quickly must that recovery occur? What data must be accessible in the event of litigation? How granular must access be? What's to be gained from indexing?

But the all-important question is this: Should backup and archiving strategies differ?

Yes, according to a recent survey by IDG Research Services. More than half of the respondents recognize key distinctions between backup and archiving, and reveal very different reasons for doing each one.

The study proves that forward-thinking enterprises have reached an evolutionary stage in their backup and archiving strategies, and are no longer thinking about them as simply "storage problems." Rather, they are evaluating all their data and making strategic decisions based on specific business needs.

"These innovators are deploying backup and archiving tools, sometimes separately, sometimes together, but always informed by business value, data accessibility and protection," says Tom Mackowski, vice president of digital product management for Iron Mountain. "And they're reaping the rewards, saving money by optimizing technology to their data needs."