Archival Information Governance: Minimizing Risk and Maximizing Budget

When organizations look to cut costs, technology spend is often one of the first on the chopping block. While firms often look at “nice to have” tools as a starting point, it’s inevitable that they’ll eventually notice the huge line item that is digital file storage. In addition to ROT data, archival data has become a major factor in ballooning storage costs in information heavy environments. And while organizations could look to cheaper archival storage, chances are they’re over-retaining information even - or especially - in their archives. This means you’re not only overspending on storage, you’re increasing your risk. Luckily both risk and storage spend can be properly managed by automating your information governance strategies. We outline the costliest mistakes we see firms making and provide a few best practices for archival storage through automation. 

Ballooning Cloud Storage = Ballooning Risk 

Cloud storage is a bit like credit card purchases. Just as it feels somehow harder to part with cash, so too is it more obvious how much an organization is storing when they choose to do so on physical drives located in the office. It’s easier to notice just how much space files are taking up when you see your server room becoming increasingly crowded. In contrast, cloud storage feels limitless. Literally out of sight and out of mind - until finance circles storage spend in a list of line items that have gotten out of control. 

There are two major areas of ballooning storage costs facing knowledge workers: ROT data and archival data. We recently covered the challenges with ROT data. But archival data can be equally challenging to budgets and governance teams. As more and more time passes, getting the archive under control takes on both more and less importance. While most firms wish to get the costs of storing these files under control, as the data ages it begins to not seem worth the time and effort. 

Unfortunately, however, the more the data ages, the more likely it is to be a compliance liability if you’ve retained more than you should. The age of the data also runs the risk of fueling ROT, since what was once relevant no longer is. More ROT data mean downstream workflows - eDiscovery, audits, AI training - become slower and more-error prone. Thus the key to maximizing your storage budget is as much about minimizing risk as it is about cost. 

Best Practices for Archival Storage via Automation 

If your archives have become a source of risk and stress, there are several best practices you can implement to clean them up, ensuring you’re both compliant and fiscally responsible with storage costs. 

1. Start with a centralized governance platform. Archived data only becomes governable when it’s visible, and digital platforms can create a lot of hard to see data. To be able to govern across active systems and archives, such as DMSs, cloud repositories, network shares, etc, you need a system that creates a single layer of governance. FiT’s information governance software brings our archives into the same policy framework, workflows, and audit trails as the rest of your information lifecycle. 
2. Run regular eligibility reports. Archival risk grows quietly over time, especially if you’re relying on manual processes to root out all non-compliant data. FiT enables automated eligibility reporting to continuously identify records that are eligible for disposition based on retention schedules, client rules, and regulatory requirements. These reports surface ROT data before it becomes a liability, giving governance and risk teams a clear, repeatable way to stay on top of archives. 
3. Establish defensible deletion procedures and document everything. Documenting what you delete removes the risk because it accounts for when and why you did so (i.e. defensible deletion). FiT operationalizes defensible deletion by embedding approvals, workflows, and audit logs directly into the platform. Every action is captured automatically, creating a clear chain of custody that stands up to audits, litigation, and client scrutiny while minimizing the workload for your teams. 
4. Monitor integrations continuously to prevent silent failures. Governance breaks most often at the integration layer, especially if you’re using an on-premises system that requires manual workarounds each time a platform updates. FiT’s cloud based platform, however, is engineered to monitor integrations continuously and alert teams when endpoints change, APIs update, or enforcement is disrupted. Plus our more agile code allows the FiT team to update quickly and quietly, without your team needing to call. 

Archival storage needs tend to be highly personal to each organization - there’s not a one size fits all, and not even a one size fits most. But not having your archives in order opens you up to mounting regulatory pressure and jeopardizes AI adoption plans. There’s no need to navigate the process alone, however; work with Future in Tech’s expert team to develop a plan to govern your archives and effectively automate it going forward. 

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