6 Data Archiving Trends for 2023 and Beyond
- Written by Lilly Miller
When doing business, data archiving is obligatory for various purposes. Even though the data retention requirements may vary significantly, from 3 years to forever, that's a lot of records to store. Naturally, the cost of data archiving becomes a significant factor, as well as the efficiency of the company's archiving solution.
So, how can businesses achieve and manage their data in a format they can prove is immutable and do so efficiently? While making predictions is hard and almost certainly flawed, below are some crucial trends in data archiving that will thrive in 2023 and beyond.
Automated Data Archiving
However, there is no doubt that in 2023 archiving automation will continue. It will increasingly focus on implementing solutions enabling companies to transform unstructured data into secure and structured archives automatically.
Since structured data is easy to archive, find and analyze, it will save companies precious time, energy, and money.
The Public Will Hold Corporations Accountable
In recent history, the public has increasingly held corporations responsible for their views and actions regarding harming individuals, communities, and the environment. At the same time, it has started demanding that corporations show their positive commitment to protecting society and the environment. The odds are high that it will continue to do so in the future.
For example, many companies in various industries are now being called out for greenwashing - a marketing tactic based on false statements making them appear more sustainable than they are. Coca-Cola, IKEA, H&M, and Volkswagen are just a few of the brands allegedly held accountable by the public for this deceitful way of advertising.
Companies should always be ready to defend their marketing and advertising statements. To achieve this, they must keep track of all their communication channels to confirm they are not making any false or misleading claims. Data archiving can prove to be crucial for a company's protection against such allegations.
Fighting Disinformation
It's become extremely tough to distinguish between facts and fiction nowadays. Fake news is everywhere, and many seem to believe in disinformation strongly. One of the extreme examples is the recent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's defamation trial. Using his Infowars website, he made hoax claims that the shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School was staged and that the victims' relatives were just actors. Such actions led to defaming the families and knowingly causing emotional distress, as they were, above all, victims of his followers' harassment.
Considering how information can be manipulated nowadays, companies must keep their data archives. To prove what they said, they must be able to provide non-editable archives of their original statements in the actual context. This way, tampering with data is prevented, meaning such archives will hold up in court.
Moving Data to The Cloud
Many companies still have on-premise legacy systems and data storage solutions. Such systems, which operate solely in offices, contain valuable historical data.
These companies now face the high risk of permanently losing access to their data due to the loss of support and maintenance or a technology failure. More proactive companies will move it to the cloud before it gets too late, creating secure archives they can access and use from anywhere.
Consent on Employee Monitoring
The surge of new technology solutions, hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic, has given rise to the electronic monitoring of employees.
As many companies now have access to their employee's personal data, including their homes, some states are now passing laws to protect the employees. Such laws tend to demand that companies that monitor their remote workers must inform them of their intention to do so and/or that employees actively consent to such practice.
To stay safe in legal terms, the companies must obtain and archive non-editable notice of intention and/or employees' consent.
Archiving SaaS App Data
Companies nowadays rely on various SaaS apps in their day-to-day operations. Various project management tools, chat and videoconference apps, customer support tools, etc., will continue to expand and gain on their significance. As a screenshot of a Slack chat or a Zoom meeting is not a good approach to archiving, companies will look for solutions to capture the information and its entire context.
By following the above trends, you can ensure your company is up to date with the most recent data archiving practices and reaping all their benefits.
