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Bad Tapes Part 4: The Path to the Digital Future
As You Move Towards Digitising Backup Tapes, Consider Technology Solutions That Align With Your Organisational Strategic Goals and Policies
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28. Mrz 2024
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This is part four of a five part report which explores what led to data over-retention on tape, defines the current situation and outlines how to remediate data holdings to reduce ongoing operational costs and regulatory risk. Find out more about this report by reading the introduction or downloading the full Bad Tapes report here.
What Does It Take To Remediate Legacy Tape Data?
If magnetic data tapes are bad archives (see Part 2: Embracing Purpose), and if tapes have a limited lifespan, then something has to change, and soon. That something is format. As organisations worldwide embark on major data risk mitigation projects, FTI Consulting supports them by extracting and preserving relevant data in more modern, easier-to-access platforms: cloud storage platforms with clear access controls, metadata tagging and user-friendly interfaces to enable searchability.
But before abandoning tapes for this halcyon digital future, there are a few things to consider. Technology solutions should align with your organisational strategic goals and policy. Before building the future, know what is needed. Policy objectives should be well defined and supported by appropriate standards and processes. Cementing the policy framework gives the remediation plan structure and a clear destination that supports long term goals.
Building a Clear Path and Sighting the Destination — Maturing the Data Governance Framework
Consider Data Governance and System Frameworks
Develop or review the following:
- Disaster recovery and crisis plans
- Structured and unstructured data strategy (what to hold, how to hold it, approved storage locations)
- Archive strategy
- Backup strategy
- Decommission strategy
Legal:
- Retention policy and schedule
- Legal holds register
- Watching brief on regulatory change — data retention and privacy obligations
Strategy and opertaions:
- Consider downstream business use of data and potential de-identification requirements
- Expansion into different geographical regions and the impact on existing of proposed storage and archive solutions
- Agility in the M&A market, ensuring data risk posture supports business aspirations as an attractive investment, or in preparation to acquire an entity and merge systems
Walking down the path — remediating data holdings
With the destination in sight, it’s time to plan how to get there. The steps along the journey might include:
- Triaging data — gather existing catalogues, identifying key data assets
- Assess — Apply a retention schedule to the data to work out what is needed and what isn’t; identify ROT tapes (redundant, obsolete and trivial), such as blanks or corrupted tapes
- Dispose of ROT tapes
- Index the remaining tapes
- Classify and review the data to identify required data assets
- Defensibly dispose of unneeded data, subject to formal approvals; document all disposal.
At the destination, with a leaner, fully indexed dataset, it’s time to ensure practices enable the organisation to take advantage of all the work. Minimise data collection and creation, classify data to enable searchability and implement systems to comply with retention schedules. Don’t build up a new data horde. (See Part 5: From the Ashes Comes New Growth)
Ask Yourself These Questions:
- Are you storing unneeded personal information on tape?
- Are you storing regulated data on tape? Are you confident you can restore that data?
- Does your data governance framework provide the necessary clarity to guide a remediation project?
- Do you have a retention schedule? Is it up to date with current laws and your business practices?
Datum
28. Mrz 2024
Ansprechpartner
Managing Director