Four Archive Essentials

The Modern Archive: Part 2

Filing for the futureAs discussed in our last blog, whether you’re forced to archive due to industry regulations or just looking for a better way to catalogue past projects, it’s important to find a solution that can meet the specific needs of your business. Data that hasn’t been secured in a central repository runs the risk of being lost or forgotten. Most archived information will sit undisturbed for years but must be made easily accessible for things like audits, legal disputes, and employee inquiries. Enter the CloudThe Cloud hovers in the Goldilocks zone between cost and accessibility. It’s just-right for helping businesses scale without breaking the bank. Cloud-based archives do more than reduce clutter in active data repositories; they offer flexibility, better organization, and ensure content can be located and restored for future use. If you’re considering a cloud-based archive, there are four important things to look for.

1. Simple Discovery

The whole point of an archive is to make sure the data you’re preserving can be found later on. Unlike traditional file servers, cloud-based archives make content easily accessible to remote users and can support contextual search so files can be found quickly for future reference. Contextual search is especially helpful when multiple files share the same name or when specific file/folder names aren’t available.

2. Flexible Access Control

Maybe you’re in healthcare and want access to archived EHR restricted to select doctors, patients, and insurance providers, or maybe you’re in advertising and want to make past work accessible to current creative teams. Whatever your requirements, a proper, enterprise-grade archive will allow you to specify access for each and every folder.Customized folder access can prevent accidental or intentional data deletion/modification, as well as support regulatory compliance. Always choose an archive solution with granular subfolder permissions, so they can be configured to prevent changes or overwrites to existing files (WORM).

3. Data Protection

A cloud-based archive can serve as a central hub for the entire organization, which gives IT better content visibility. Better visibility makes it easier for admins to secure data and ensure it meets specific internal and external retention requirements. An effective archive should even be able to identify files that are improperly permissioned anywhere in the company, as well as provide real-time alerts when vulnerabilities are detected.

4. Disaster Recovery

What happens if the office floods? Businesses using on-premises archives must have a disaster recovery plan. If you’ve yet to migrate content to the Cloud, then you’ve got to have backups somewhere else. An effective cloud-based archive replaces traditional file servers and eliminates the need for disaster recovery and backup services.In addition to reducing file server costs, a cloud-based archive should store multiple file versions and redundant file copies. Multiple file versions provide audit history, so admins can track document changes, as well as who made them. All of this is essential for maintaining total content visibility and reducing the impact of a natural (or unnatural) data disaster.To find out how Egnyte can help meet your specific archive needs visit egnyte.com/archive and stay tuned for our next blog, How Egnyte Solved Archive.