7 Points To Consider While Selecting an Archiving Solution

The vulnerability and risks in the digital domain have made data protection a necessity for brands and organizations. Web archiving is one process that documents and stores a website’s data periodically and hence is preferred by companies. Many third-party companies offer web archiving solutions. But not every product is designed on industry standards. If you plan to safeguard your website’s data through a web archiving service, then you need to be careful in selecting one. Some of the points that you can consider in picking the right service are:

1. Structured data archiving: If your brand has a lot of sensitive data then it becomes important to archive it in a structured way. A structured archival maintain complex data relationships and is easy to retrieve. The transfer of data from primary to alternate storage space is fast as well.

2. Archival process: The data can be archived either manually or automatically. The manual process is prone to human errors and data loss. On the other hand, automation saves a lot of time and reduces human supervision effort. Automation is the best choice for archiving as it reduces human error, can be customized and saves time.

3. Data accessibility: If the archived data is stored at an off-site location then its access and downloading will take time. Overheads would be needed to support this task. If your data is archived in the cloud, it is easy to access and saves cost and manpower. It would be better if the archival happens at an on-site location with direct access to the archived drive. Thus, you won’t have to spend time searching for important files. You can take a backup of the archived data at an off-site location.

4. Data security: Your organization’s data is critical to the company; hence its security is of utmost importance. Review the security and access control measures taken by the vendor in protecting information from data loss and hackers.

5. Archival cost: Most of the archived data is either redundant or trivial. The archiving solution should be able to identify the less accessed files. These files should be archived separately. This will reduce the maintenance and storage costs of these files. Moreover, some archiving solution providers also charge for data accessibility. Make sure that you see the entire price structure before selecting the vendor.

6. Long term solution: Changes happen all the time, and there is a possibility that you would like to switch over to a new cloud service after some time. Such transfers are easy if the data is stored in the cloud. Check for such flexibilities and exit strategies in the service agreement before signing it.

7. Support service: The agreement should mention the details of 24X7 technical support being provided by the vendor. They should be able to handle all the queries and concerns of your organization as your sensitive data is stored with them. Also, if there is any intellectual property related information archived, there should be proper NDA in place.

Considering the above-mentioned points will help you in choosing the right vendor to archive sensitive and critical data of your organization.

Jackson Gilbert is a Blogger. With his skills, he has been helping fellow marketers and brands worldwide. When not glued to his laptop, he can be found making travel plans that rarely happen.