> I haven'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.

Or refreshed.

Actually when I raised the issue of the data being readable, I wasn't
referring to hardware or media problems (though these are also good
points), but the availability of software that can "understand" the data.
For example, if you open a .zip file with a plain text editor, the content
will appear as so much garbage. Without a zip program that can make sense
of the data, being able to restore a .zip file doesn't give you anything
useful (at least not without an awful lot of hacking). .zip is a common
format and likely to be available in the future, but what about more
obscure formats, where maybe you archive the files while you use the
product? Suppose you switch to a new product that uses a different format,
then decide 10 years from now you need to retrieve the data that was used
by the old product. Will you still have a copy of that old product around
that will run on current operating systems and hardware? Even if you
archived the software and could in theory restore and run it, do you know
where, amongst all that archive data, the software is? Will your
successors be able to find the data and the software? Will they even know
which software they need to run?

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

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