I havn't read the SBO requirements, but from our internal auditors, it looks
like we need to have a good business
best efforts to keep readable for whatever retention period we publicize.

In working with older tape technology in storing archive tapes, we found
that 20% of the tapes were not readable within 5 years. It seems that the
best idea for long term archives is they need to be re-read on a regular
basis (annually?) just to make sure they can be read.

The only time I have heard of a real application that must have 'everything
forever' was a TSM application where they were storing a local and remote
copy of documentation (and each version) for a nuclear power plant.  In that
case, I think they used a WORM library both locally and remotely.  I didn't
design it and don't know the details, just that it 'had to work'.  It got
expensive, but that is what the federal regulators requried.


-----Original Message-----
From: Shannon Bach [mailto:SBach AT MGE DOT COM]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 12:09 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Thoughts on Monthly Archives



For us, it is the beginning of the Sarbanes-Oxley overhaul.  I ask those
same questions to people all over my company and their response?

Well you (me) had better make sure that the data moves with whatever new
Technoloogy comes in!

They don't care if we have the software capable of reading this data again.
They just want to be in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.  And it is starting
to look to me that  Sarbanes-Oxley believes in keeping everything, forever.





        Andrew Raibeck <storman AT US.IBM DOT COM>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>


07/19/2004 11:25 AM
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager"



        To:        ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        cc:
        Subject:        Re: Thoughts on Monthly Archives



Some considerations for long-term archive:

- Much of today's data, as it is used from day to day, exists in some
product-specific format. If you were to retrieve that data, say, 10 years
from now, would you have software capable of reading that data?

- Even if you archive the software, will operating systems 10 years from
now be able to run that software?

- Even if you archive the operating system installation files, will the
hardware 10 years from now be able to install and run that operating
system?

- There is a good case to consider carefully what gets archived and how
you archive it.For instance, maybe for database data, it would make sense
to export that data to some common format, such as tab- or comma-delimited
records, which is very likely to be importable by most software. Likewise,
for image data, consider a format that is common today and likely to be
common tomorrow.

- 10 years from now, the people that need to retrieve the archived data
will probably not be the same people who originally archived the data.
Will your successors know what that data is? Will they know how to get to
it? ("Gee, we need to get at the accounts payable database from 10 years
ago... under which node is it archived?") Will they know how to
reconstruct it, and how to use it?

I am by no means an expert in this area, but these are some things to
consider carefully for long-term archives. Note that most of these issues
are not directly related to TSM, but apply regardless of which data
storage tool you use.

Regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.ibm DOT com

The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
The command line is your friend.
"Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.