HOST INTRO
In Part I of our End User series, entitled “It’s not all Backup”, we feature Carl Watts, Storage Architect and IT Specialist with the Library of Congress. Carl brings fresh perspectives for us today around long term content preservation and traditional views on backup and data archive. While Carl’s approach borrows heavily from the Digital preservation initiatives practiced at the Library of Congress, the principles should be considered by everyone tasked with data protection for any organization.
Today we’ll cover Carl’s outline for data protection based on his premise that backup, statutory preservation, and long-term content preservation are three different beasts with different goals, owners, and technologies.
Backup
Short-term, versioned safety copies of systems and data for operational recovery such as ransomware, hardware failure, or user error.
Statutory Preservation
Legally required retention and immutability of specific records to meet laws and regulations and support e-discovery.
Long-Term Content Preservation
Curated, documented, and managed storage of content so it stays complete, findable, and usable for decades.
We’ll also discuss who owns these tasks in the corporate environment and the governance steps required to maintain the integrity of the archives.
Ownership and Governance
Backup is primarily owned by IT and Infrastructure, with security input.
Statutory preservation requirements are driven by Legal and Compliance, while IT implements and operates the systems.
Long-term preservation is typically owned by IT, but an oversight committee must be in place to ensure the organization is properly managing the important intellectual property of the business for long-term security.
So stay tuned for our interview with Carl as we discuss why it’s “Not all backup”.
HOST OUTRO
We hope you enjoyed Carl’s innovative approach to defining data protection for digital assets in Part I. We’ll be back with Part II of “It’s Not All Backup” featuring Carl Watts next time on the LTO Show.
