As regular readers of this blog know I have written extensively on the issues, procedures, and practices involved in archiving data from operational database systems. Database archiving is a growing trend because of the data retention mandates imposed in the many governmental regulations that have been passed into law. Not all of these regulations are recent, but many of them are.
For an alternative, yet supportive, view on data retention issues I refer you to an excellent article by John A. Murphy published in The Data Administration Newsletter titled Data Retention - More Value, Less Filling. Murphy makes many of the same points I have made in this blog over the course of the past year or so.
Anyway, according to industry analysts there are over 150 regulations at the international, national, and local levels that impact the duration of time that data must be retained. Examples include HIPAA, which demands that pediatric medical records are retained for 21 years; 21 CFR Part 11 (life sciences), which demands that data for clinical trials and FDA approval be retained for 35 years; and SEC 17a-4 (financial services), which requires all account records to be retained for six years.
And these are just a few of the numerous regulations driving organizations to plan for long-term data retention. Now, of course, the regulations will demand that you retain data -- they do not require you to archive it. But for all practical purposes the regulations require archiving data from operational databases. Do you really want to keep data in a functioning, operational database for 35 years? What would the impact be in terms of operational performance and database storage if you decided to do that?
So the laws tell us we must retain data and practicality tells us we must archive it. And that means it is imperative that your organization implements a database archiving solution to be in compliance with governmental regulations.