I agree with this concept... keep a few days for backups... (Remember,
backup are short term, Archive is for long term!)

Do a Database dump once a month, week whatever you want to store in an
Archive...for 7 years...

Who know if you are going to have Oracle in 7 years... or if the version in
seven years will be able to read a very old Database...

Ascii files can be read by any DB, and others like Excel... etc...

So...

Frédéric Landreville    email: fred_landreville AT rjri DOT com
Lead Technical Analyst
R.J. Reynolds International B.V. (Hilversum) Geneva Branch
14, Chemin Rieu CH-1211 Geneva 17
Switzerland
Tel: +41-22-703-0323 Fax: +41-22-703-0324