I would like to hear some effects that each of you expect to occur in  
the coming years?

Iron Mountain stated in their press release that they expect the  
coming year to be one filled with even more acquisitions but with  
smaller companies being targeted.  Given that their approach is to  
consolidate box collections in larger and larger facilities, how will  
your  management react to this?

Is storing corporate records in such large facilities a good thing?   
Is moving records farther from you a good thing with delivery costs  
up and the delivery time window moving from the traditional 12 hour  
and 24 hour to 48 hours or longer to have a record in hand. (Or a  
third party delivery agent in place?)

If records managers back in 1990 and forward had struck through the  
line about Permanent Removal Fees, struck through the clause that  
allowed the storage company to outsource delivery to the pizza  
delivery boy if it saves them a nickel and added a clause that stated  
that any move of records from the existing location was a breach of  
contract, would any of this be happening?

Will moving records further away from the smaller markets be a good  
thing?  Or will it spur new players in the local markets.  UPS, DHL  
and FedEx can expand their delivery service to handle the movement of  
all records.  Right?  Or will they enter the field of document  
storage too??  Why not?  If they are going to be the delivery team  
why not build huge storage terminals next to their facilities.  One  
of the storage companies just built a huge terminal right next to  
FedEX so maybe this is already happening?  If Symantec can be an  
evaulter isn't everything possible?

In reality will any of this matter?  Some feel that the average of 16  
years on a shelf for a box of records is being drastically reduced.   
Shredding is going through the roof right now as many companies seek  
to concentrate more of their records in digital archives not paper  
stored in warehouses.  So they are shortening the retention period on  
paper.  This is leading to massive amounts of shredding.

The Hostage Fee issue has been fought and won by the clients in  
several markets.  The courts view Hostage Fees as Restraint of  
Trade.  This is important if you wish to downsize your box  
collections so you can move to digital records.  You then pull them  
and shred them.

Server Vaults are increasing in popularity.  Evaulting is increasing  
in popularity.  Symantec came into evaulting the other day as did  
another large IT World type company.  Asigra has developed a network  
of Evaulters that can compete with anyone.  The Internet is the  
pathway from anywhere to anywhere for storage. Some evault to India?   
I have a problem with that? Am I the only one?  Identity Theft is  
through the roof.  Who is to blame?

Disk to Disk Mirroring is increasing so paper is far less important.   
Local records storage companies are moving into Media Vaulting,  
Server Vaulting and Co-Location so we really are in the midst of change.

The courts have raised the value of Email to that of a "Vital Record"  
so who will you trust it to?

The mergers are moving boxes, but are they as valuable now as they  
use to be?

Is your company taking any new approaches in how you deal with records?

I know that Home Depot, Walmart and other Superstores make things  
convenient and there is no risk therefore in using one store for  
everything, but do we really want all our records in one huge  
warehouse?  Is that prudent in a risk management approach.

What if all of Chicago lost its back up data on the same day?  Could  
this affect our national economy?  Remember when one power company's  
switch flipped and triggered a cascade in power failure and data  
centers all over went in to recovery at the same time.  Are we at  
that point with records management?

We do know we have never been here before, and there is no Homeland  
Defense Drill to see what the effect of these consolidations will  
be.  So we are forced to look at the company by company approach.   
What I am seeing is a change away from paper in a big way.  All of a  
sudden companies are back to imaging paper that they want to keep  
from old records as they move to total digital.  When the last fax  
gets unplugged, I think paper drops to a minimal level. ( Since I can  
send digital faxes and receive digital faxes, we are almost there.)


Hugh
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