The difference between backups, continuity and archiving can be confusing, however, the key differences boil down to comparing retention to intelligence.

While backup addresses retention and continuity addresses retention plus uptime, archiving is a specialized additional service providing supervision and intelligence for selective information. Archived information is stored in a “search ready” state that delivers significant paybacks in terms of saving time and money when responding to potentially damaging situations like litigation or audits.

Backup (Retention)

Born from the IT arena, the functionality of backup is storing and restoring information. Its use is solely for retention and is not designed to be an efficient source when searching for specific information. The backup data is not stored in a “search ready” state.

Since the dawn of the computer age, backups have been needed to provide a means of restoring information captured at specific points in time or when prompted by IT. In times of crisis, large blocks of backed up information are recovered and restored into production systems so that daily functioning can resume.

Continuity (Retention Plus Uptime)

Also born out of the IT arena, continuity features two or more systems running and storing duplicate data at all times. Its use is designed for retention and uptime for critical systems. As with backups, the duplicated data is not stored in a “search ready” state.

Unlike backup systems, there is no restore and recovery process with continuity solutions. In a time of crisis, daily functioning is not affected and uptime is preserved. Continuity solutions are typically utilized for critical business functions where any amount of downtime is not an option. Archiving, on the other hand, offers much more than just data retention and/or uptime, but rather information intelligence.

Archiving (Intelligence)

Driven by the needs of both compliance and legal arenas, archiving solutions provide specialized functionality for storing select information in an indexed and searchable or “search ready“ state. When the need arises to access archived information, such as for an audit or potential litigation, the process to search for and review relevant information is much quicker, a lot more efficient and costs far less when compared to using backups and continuity retained data.

In addition to e-mail, the archiving of all communications content, such as social media and instant and text messages, continues to rise steadily within regulated industries including, but not limited to: financial services, healthcare, life sciences, insurance, and mortgage/lending.

Beyond storing data in a “search ready” state, the information can be policy checked for compliance violations as it’s being captured and indexed in real-time. This inherent benefit of archiving provides considerable value for organizations of all sizes within regulated industries.

Without an archiving solution such as The Archiving Platform™ offered by Smarsh, compliance and legal teams are forced to search for and extract the information they need in a manner that’s similar to finding a few needles in multiple haystacks. Consider the negative impact of this manual and time-consuming effort when legal review professionals typically cost upwards of $350 per hour.

Accessing compliance, legal or audit related communications content, which is archived in a “search ready” state, removes the haystacks so the critical needles can be quickly and easily found.
For more information, visit http://www.smarsh.com/platform.