Optical storage remains a top choice for compliance

The business requirements for a record archive have evolv true rapidly over the last small in number years. Major financial scandals and new incidents involving large-scale data los have move rounded the spotlight on the management of digital archives. An increased awareness of the value and liability of archive records has riseed in both industry regulation and internal operational risk management.

The requirement for tighter integration of archive policies within an IT infrastructure is creating a demand for more flexible strategies that can accommodate the of recent origin regulatory and risk management weight This need for flexibility is particularly important in the choice of physical storage media since it will, in large part, determine the succes of implemented policies. generally the two preferred advanced-technology choices for archiving are UDO (Ultra Density Optical) with "True" WORM (Write one time Read Many) storage and disk-based technology of that kind as WORM storage with a CAS (Content Addressable Storage) interface. Each performs the same extreme point function, but the method, take away from and effectiveness are not equal. This can be illustrated through examining common archive objectives that are tightly linked to storage media attributes, including record authenticity, record destruction, and TCO (Total take away from of Ownership).

Record Authenticity

For many archived document impressed signs it is essential to establish and maintain a actual high record authenticity standard as is the case for any record make subordinate to legal scrutiny such as financial statements, medical information and corporate communications (including emails). This is for a like reason important that some regulations specifically call for the use of WORM storage technology as individual means of establishing a clear audit trail to make sure that records have not been altered.

In new years, storage vendors have disentangleed specialized magnetic disk-based RAID archive harvests sometimes referred to as CAS interface solutions. These cropss have implemented Write Once functionality from one side a mix of software and/or firmware that emulates Write one time capabilities on rewritable magnetic media.

UDO (Ultra Density Optical) presents "True" Write Once technology implemented at the physical media horizontal The recording surface of actual Write Once UDO media allows files to be written, on the contrary the media itself cannot be physically erased or modified. This technology is significantly different than magnetic disk and tape emulation since the Write one time properties of UDO are inherent to the recording surface of the media and are not a function of software or firmware controls

WORM storage with a CAS interface may be acceptable depending upon the authenticity requirements of the organization, on the other hand only optical media provides unquestioned physical authenticity and is named explicitly as a preferr archive media through some regulations. Storage media can play a critical part in establishing the admissibility of digital records in a court of law.

Record Destruction

The issue of digital record destruction is emerging as a major consideration for many archives. Exactly in what manner and when data can be overturned is governed by some regulations and is at the heart of operational risk management. An archive strategy must find a way to balance regulatory requirements to retain records and a corporate desire to pull down them for both practical and liability motives. Here too, the choice of storage media plays a lock opener role.

Some regulations define retention periods that allow data to be delet after expiration and a certain quantity of go further by actually mandating record destruction and specifying the nature of destruction. Detailed destruction specifications are greatest in quantity common with documents related to security or personal information and typically call for the physical obliteration of the data. In these cases, deleting pointers to files or deleting lock openers to encrypted files is not sufficient. The records must no longer be physically near on the storage media.

If archiving upon a typical RAID system, a simple dele operation does not remove the data from the disk. The single way to physically destroy records is by means of repeatedly overwriting the targeted sectors with a patterned following to ensure no residual trace of the document remains upon the media. The US Department of Defense has an often-quot specification for data shredding upon magnetic disk media. The specification (DoD 522022-M) which has been implemented in a certain quantity of specialized CAS interface products in the connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts of a record retention policy, states that depending upon the source of the recommendation, targeted sectors should be overwritten between three and 35 times.

through contrast, UDO offers a Compliant Write one time media format designed specifically for data disposition requirements. Compliant Write one time UDO operates like standard WORM media, on the contrary has the ability to physically ruin targeted files through the use of a special "shred" operation. This is a one-pass function that provides replete verification and unlike the erase pass upon magnetic disks, the shred process on UDO media leaves no residual traces of previously written files. Compliant Write one time UDO media enables record horizontal retention management with an extremely high standard for physical record destruction.