--- Linda Buss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> When backing up server data, is there a way (or software application)
> to
> segregate the information according to a records retention schedule? 

Well, the first part of this answer is that you need to be very
specific in defining things for IT.

A Backup is created for business continuity or disaster recovery
purposes. PERIOD. The Backup should have an extremely limited
maintenance period (I'm deliberately not saying "retention"). The
backup contains whatever information on the server is needed for
restoration of the company's systems and data in the event of the loss
of the facility or the server. That's it. A Backup is not intended to
be used as long term storage of data.

If you are going to set up a system to retain data in accord with your
retention schedule, then you're going to create an Archive. An Archive
copy of your data is retained in accord with your records retention
schedules. Generally, this is very difficult to do for file servers and
less difficult when storing snapshots of data from various systems.

So the first thing to do is decide if your existing systems are capable
of retaining data in accord with your retention periods. If so, there
is no need for a separate Archive. If not, then you need to decide when
to take periodic snapshots of the data and retain that data for the
required period of time. It is generally best to approach that on a
system by system basis.

For file servers (LAN drives with documents), you're going to be
somewhat constrained. Absent a document management system, you'll need
to establish a very formal process for storing files on the LAN drives.
Generally, this will mean that folks will have to store things by
record type and then by year, so that you can have the IT folks select
the directories that need to be archived in accord with the retention
schedule. This will be an enormously complex process and likely will
fail.

For email, you have a similar problem, absent an email / document
management system, you're going to have to create the same sort of
shared folder structure (if Outlook) so that select folders can be
archived in accord with the retention schedule. And your end users will
need to make sure they follow the structure.

Clearly, for documents, you want a document management system. For your
computer systems, you can either retain the information within the
system or create data archives from time to time.

But what you should not be worried about are Backups. Be very preceise
about that. Backups generally cannot be created in a manner that allows
you to assign proper retention periods. The point of backups is to
readily restore needed information in the aftermath of a disaster.
Don't let scope creep enter into that process. And don't let anyone
tell you that Backups need to be retained as records. They are not
designed to serve as recordkeeping systems -- they are designed to
quickly preserve and restore business critical information. 

Your backup tapes should rotate on a roughly monthly cycle. Many
organizations have four to six weekly sets of backups. A full backup is
taken at the beginning of the week (Sunday) and incremental backups are
then taken each succeeding day. Depending upon the size of the
organization and the capacity of the backup system, full backups may be
taken more frequently.

There are some who would argue that this is all just semantics, but I
would suggest that you be very precise in defining each task. They
really cannot and should not be combined. If you retain backups like
archives, you're not going to be able to generate daily backups without
a lot more effort. If you create archives from backups, you're not
going to be able to properly retain the information.

Patrick Cunningham, CRM

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