Information retention

Remember when "Records Retention" meant paper in file cabinets?

Laws, regulations and business practices policies have resulted in longer retention periods for business records. Increased volumes create a cost burden. The inability to purge records on schedule creates additional costs and risks.

Businesses with a clear information retention policy know which information should be retained for how long, which to be deleted, and how it should be protected. Policy-based records retention enables efficient use of tiered storage, which can significantly reduce total power consumption and costs.

Retain the information you need and mitigate risk

IBM can help. With IBM Information Infrastructure solutions, you can leverage tiers of storage (disk and tape) with policy-based management that automatically moves less active information to more cost-effective storage systems, as well as deduplication and compression techniques to achieve storage capacity optimization and improved productivity. With IBM solutions, you can reduce costs and mitigate business risks associated with skyrocketing information and manage its lifecycle effectively.

IBM can design and provide an integrated information retention solution tailored for your business. Let IBM show you how to retain and manage information cost effectively, protect and secure it efficiently, and save money by reducing energy, floor space, and maintenance requirements.

We can help you leverage key information technologies, including:

• Tiered storage environments (disk, tape)
• Data migration and mobility tools
• Data compression and data deduplication
• Policy-driven tiered storage management with automated migration and expiration
• Disk and tape encryption for data protection
• Non-erasable, non-rewritable storage systems
• Records/content management tools and solutions for identification, collection and classification of content with automated management

A cost-effective data retention and disposal program

IBM’s information archiving and retention strategy can help organizations optimize their storage infrastructures by matching the value of their information to the appropriate storage media. Following this strategy gives users the cost benefits of a blended, tiered solution. Inactive information can be stored on lower cost storage, while more pertinent, critical, and active information can be stored on near-line disk, allowing for faster retrieval and search.

Keeping information secure and protected during retention is important to eliminate the business risk and costs associated with critical information exposure. IBM Information Infrastructure tools and solutions allow for data to be encrypted before transmission over the network or when saved to disk or tape, and keep it encrypted as long as it is retained, as well as allowing for secure disposal at the end of the information lifecycle.