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Over the years I’ve written a lot about the benefits of enterprise file consolidation, i.e., storing and managing unstructured data in a common repository.   In fact, most companies still have data spread around the enterprise in distinct stand-alone data silos (usually unmanaged at the file level) including custodian computers, removable media, personal cloud accounts, file systems, email systems, and SharePoint servers (to name just a few).

Email Journaling in Office 365

The question of whether moving to the cloud has cost advantages over that of staying on premise continues to be discussed in industry publications. Some industry analysts suggest that all things being equal, OpEx strategies should cost more than CapEx… but does it? Lets first briefly explore the definitions of the two strategies and then dig deeper into the numbers that layout the true cost of ownership (TCO) of moving to the cloud.

Microsoft has just published an in-depth vendor story on Archive360 titled “Intelligent information management ISV uses Azure to give customers fast, flexible insights at a lower cost.”

Healthcare providers are facing continually growing data storage requirements, a changing regulatory compliance environment and increasing numbers of data sources to manage. The obvious culprit of rising healthcare storage requirements is diagnostic imaging systems. Currently, imaging systems are creating over 600 million images per year in the U.S. alone.

With the recent ransomware attacks that have been in the headlines over the last year, many companies are reconsidering their data protection strategies to protect their company against these new, growing threats.

Prior to the availability of cloud archiving, companies were stuck with expensive, on premise archiving solutions mainly because they were the only game in town. The archiving software vendors focused on specific industries that required companies to archive data based on government regulatory requirements, for example the financial services industry with SEC and FINRA compliance requirements. Companies quickly discovered the downside of on premise archiving solutions; 1) they were expensive, and 2) they were complicated to maintain. Their main advantage was that your data was stored in your data center – you controlled your data.

Microsoft today announced the general availability of their archive tier, Microsoft Azure Archive Blob Storage, to go along with their Hot and Cool storage tiers. For Azure-based archiving and information governance applications, the Azure Archive Blob Storage tier will be a huge advance for records managers and information governance professionals looking for long term, inexpensive archive storage.

Today, companies are looking for solutions that can archive inactive data from little used enterprise applications. Those applications can be decommissioned, saving the company the expense of keeping them running for little payback. But the question not addressed early enough in the project is what to do with all of the application’s legacy data – delete it or save it (and where). By migrating the legacy data to an intelligent archive, organizations can preserve the value of legacy application data, ensure regulatory compliance, and address any legal concerns.