Why Archive with a Service?
Archiving is not a central function of most data centers. Resources and expertise in good archive practices may be unavailable. As a consequence, material that should be archived may be left in active storage. Material that is taken offline may be improperly disposed of, or held in a single copy in an insecure format that can be damaged or misplaced. (One of the core principles of good archival practice is called "LOCKSS" (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe. This means that the integrity of any content being stored should never depend on a single piece of media, that there should be redundancy built into each copy stored and that such copies should be held in locations geographically distant from each other)
Moreover, legal and regulatory rules require that a great deal of this archival content needs to be accompanied by independent proofs of its authenticity and and further proofs that it has been handled properly, especially if the data includes content of a confidential nature. The liability issues can be significant.
Managing these kinds of requirements are not part of the core mission of many data centers. Putting such a program in place can involve considerable capital outlays, and not every IT department has the needed expertise or want to divert resources to develop them. Finally, an in-house program will be unlikely to match the efficiency or effectiveness of an external specialist.
Why the Cloud?
Because cloud-based content management services make sense, according to IT managers. A study by CompTIA called “Cloud Computing: Pulling Back the Curtain” found that nearly three quarters of end-user organizations planned to expand the number and types of cloud computing services they use over the next 12 months.
Top among their priorities? Using the cloud to improve the handling of electronically created documents and similar digital content. In the CompTIA study, 84 percent of IT decision makers cited the potential of cloud-based specialists to reduce capital expenditures and drive down operating costs, with nearly as many (81%)citing the special expertise of cloud-based service providers such as COLDSTOR Data.
COLDSTOR Data is proud to count as its partners cloud services vendors such as the international telecoms giant NTT. NTT America recently announced that COLDSTOR Data would provide its archive solution.