What is Archive as a Service?

Data volumes are growing and will continue to grow at exponential rates. Both enterprise compliances and industry/regulatory compliances are creating very strict data retention requirements. Without a doubt, managing a growing amount of data is overwhelming. That’s where Archive as a Service (AaaS) comes in. In this blog, we are reviewing what AaaS is, why it’s important, and the three essential AaaS components.

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What is Archive as a Service?

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Businesses produce a large amount of data every single day. It may be stored on different operating systems, on different devices, and even backed up separately from each other. The overwhelming amount of data that is spread across an organization is called data sprawl.

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Usually, businesses have no coherent or concise way to manage that data. After a while, it’s hard to sort, reference, or do anything with. However, data is usually a business’ most valuable asset. Therefore, businesses still expect the data to be valuable, have integrity, and be secured. To remove the stress, businesses are leaning toward Archive as a Service.

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Archive as a Service is when a third party is responsible for storing the business' data, keeping it organized and keeping it secure. The service provider stores the data while maintaining the organization’s data protection strategy.  AaaS removes the stress from IT Operations associated with managing and securing all that data.

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Why AaaS is Important?

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No matter the business vertical, businesses need to store data for a specified length of time. However, it does vary. For example, some of our customers need to retain data for at least 3 months and others need to store data for 30+ years.  There is no doubt that securely storing data is becoming a business necessity. We are working with clients who are setting aside yearly budgets to deal with this ever-growing business challenge.

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Other than internal requirements, here are some industry-related data retention requirements:

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• Architecture firms are required to retain data for 15+ years

• Accounting firms are required to retain data for 7+ years

• Law Firms are required to maintain trust accounting records or documents for 10 years immediately preceding the lawyer's most recent fiscal year-end

• For our neighbors in the United States, HIPAA regulations set the standard for medical practices to retain data for at least 6 years

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In other words, storing data is not a new concept. However, it has never been so digitized before. Putting folders in boxes and shipping them to a warehouse is not as common. Now,  businesses need to store data where it can be easily accessible and 100% secure so it can remain valuable!

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Components of AaaS

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When sending boxes of folders to warehouses, businesses used to organize the files first. Then, the warehouse people would come to pick it up to store the boxes. When they needed to access the files, the warehouse would bring it back.

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Well, those are the exact same components that are important for storing your data – just a much larger and more complicated scale. When archiving data, businesses must consider organizing, storing, and recovering the data. That’s a lot of data management for any organization. Quite frankly, businesses paid warehouses to store and recover files. Businesses will absolutely resort to AaaS to organize, store, and recover data.

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Ready to Archive Data?

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Assurance IT understandsyour enterprise data retention and regulatory requirements to create a safe andcost-effective solution for your unique business. Depending on the amount ofdata and information to be archived, various options are available. AssuranceIT helps shape the solution that is right for you.

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Assurance IT checks all the boxes when it comes to data security. Learn more about our Canadian data center for our Canadian customers.

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Learn how AIT can provide great AaaS, feel free to contact one of our data backup and archive specialists! Alternatively, email us directly at info@assuranceit.ca

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