RE: Archiving - In general

["Shaw, David" <dshaw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Earl [mailto:johnearl@400security.com]
> 
> "Shaw, David" wrote:
> 
> > <snip> -----Original Message-----
> >
> > Even if a
> > mainstream format did die off, I imagine that there would 
> be a changeover
> > period when most of the valuable info would be able to be 
> migrated from the
> > old format to whatever the popular one at the time might be.
> 
> I was with you 100% until right here.  When (not if) a 
> mainstream format dies
> off, it will be the exception that someone thinks to go back 
> and read all the
> archival information from the old format and store it onto 
> the new.  Partly
> because this is no official date of death (it just get's 
> scarcer and scarcer),
> and partially because even if someone in your organization 
> spots the trend in x
> years, how likely is it that someone would propose a Big$ 
> project to recopy CD's
> to something else? (and then how likely that it would get 
> budgetted and
> approved?.

I suppose that depends on how big the bucks involved are.  It also depends
on what the real retention value of the archived data is.  If the lawyers
say you have to keep it for 7 years or 14 years or whatever, and you'd get
fired if you can't produce the information (not just the media with the
information on it, but the information itself ready for processing - we
agree on the restore thing ;), I suspect that you'd try to be careful about
it - I was when we were getting ready to dump our last 1/2 inch reel tape
drive a few years back.  The data that we had that was older than the
required retention period was destroyed - legally it's safer that way, since
if it's non-existent it's a lot less likely to be used against the company
in court. <g>  Actually, I think a lot of companies are probably keeping too
much archival information - we were, until the media issue came up.
 
Dave Shaw
Spartan International, Inc.
Spartanburg, SC
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