Businesses collect data in a routine. Initially, it is easy for the staff to manage it, whereas, it becomes complex as soon as a business grows. It needs to be classified in an order that is easily accessible and manageable.
In business, it often happens that the only person responsible for managing the data may resign and leave no traces of the data. He or she may have deleted your valuable property that may be a key to your business success.
Do you want the business data to remain unsafe and so volatile that any employee can destroy it without any fear? It is the time to design a strategy to put in place an effective archives and records management system for your business. It is the need of the hour, as your business data is not only exposed to threats from internal sources but many external sources as well. Let us find more reasons as why you may need to develop such a strategy.
Decreasing backup cost
Backup differs from archiving. Backup takes the responsibility of storing all the data as soon as a change occurs. The frequent data updates increase the backup cost because the data keeps on piling up with every passing day. Despite taking backup on a cloud disk, companies are habitually to retain offline copies as well, which means duplicating your backup. Archiving is a practical solution to it as it segregates all the inactive data from the active ones and stores it in a separate space.
In return, backup cost decreases. The data that you no longer need is now away from the system. Have an effective data management plan to save on disk space, regular backup updates, and dealing with complex processes of retrieving files.
Preventing loss of data
Data is one of the precious intangible assets of a business. It has to be kept safe and secure. With an effective archiving strategy, you can remove the inactive data from your business premises and move it to more secure and private space. Devising a strategy can assist you in deciding either to archive the data to a managed warehouse or encrypted cloud server to ensure no data is lost.
Eliminating employees’ negligence
If your inactive data is still in the hands of employees, it is prone to modifications and deletion. Employees may delete the data in the good interest of the business such as saving disk space or they may remove it deliberately in anger or hiding any misrepresentation they have committed in the past.
A data archiving strategy is mandatory when you are in the possession of private and confidential data that needs to be preserved for long. Take a step to stop the employees’ from accessing and modifying the data unnecessarily.
To secure data
One of the prime goals of having a strategy for archives and records management is its security. Data is the valuable property of a business and is exposed to several cyber and ransomware attacks. If you fail to keep it apart from the routine data, the hackers will use it for their benefit.
Keep your inactive but worthwhile data on ensuring servers and over plain internet connections is a clear invitation to intruders to break into the system and harm the data. Make a plan for isolating the priceless data for secure archiving.
Improving website SEO
Do you want to improve the search impact of your website, online store, or blog that is loaded with tons of data and information? If yes, you need to find a solution in archiving some of the inactive data.
If you can relate with the archives section of a blog, you may come to know that the search engines find it easier to index and crawl their recent and fresh data. Those pre-programmed solutions of a blog are not effective that’s why a business needs a custom solution for it.
The data, either it is products detail or articles, it has to be archived by date and not by categories so that search engines can recognize and retrieve them in results easily. A webshop that may have hundreds of products in the catalog may also not be making sales for all of them.
For them, it is advisable to archive the products they no longer produce, manufacture, or supply. It will help search engines focus on their running items. As a result, the website gains SEO benefits.
Meeting GDPR requirements
The introduction of GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations – has redefined the way businesses used to collect, process, and keep users’ data on websites. It requires the webmasters to take user consent in knowing their location and browser history, and personal details.
Online stores need to seek users’ permission to retain users’ shopping, billing, shipping, and personal details. Furthermore, they are not allowed to retain user or consumer data for a period more than necessary.
By planning different data archiving strategy, you can empower your business to keep a track of the information your website collects and preserves. Archive your data in an orderly fashion so that you can retrieve instantly upon request to avoid any fines or penalties imposed because of non-compliance with GDPR.
For Legal Compliance
GDPR is limited to European territory, whereas your regional law may differ that a separate set of rules to follow. To ask for claims or provide evidence in support of allegations against your business, somehow, you may need to furnish years-old data.
With conventional data management practices, you may not own the required file in a condition to give in the court of law. An effective data archiving strategy helps you in keeping records in presentable condition.
Final words
Data archiving is vital to any business that cares for the data it collects. Saving data is a responsibility that demands extensive care either it is about previous contracts or complete projects, employees’ or consumers’ physical records, or suppliers’ database. It requires strict checks and a purpose-developed strategy to archive the data on a safe and secure space.