Information Management NewsWire > The Importance of Data Pruning in the Cloud

The Importance of Data Pruning in the Cloud

November 30, 2011

Author and chief information officer (CIO) contributor David Taber featured an article on strategies for Pruning Data in the cloud in the November issue of CIO. Taber pointed out that, in the cloud, storage rules are different and if you’ve got too much low-value data or too many copies of files it can be costly. He also points out that storing large volume of low-value data can impact performance when it comes to searches, views, reports, and dashboard updates.

He therefore concludes that it is important to “prune” data from your cloud storage, and recommends some methods for both documents and what he calls table data. These methods include eliminating interim drafts of documents, ensuring that data being stored is high value, focusing on tables that consume more than 20% of the organization’s total storage and related costs, and deduping files, such as contact leads and contracts, to reduce the overall volume of storage.

Unfortunately, the recommendations made in this article are absent any context related to information governance issues, such as legal requirements for retaining data, a controlled disposition process that governs the destruction of data, the organization’s obligations to provide documents and information for litigation, and an understanding of the business processes underlying the creation and use of data which is stored in the cloud.

In fact, in making a jump to cloud storage, there are legal considerations, as well as technology issues, that must be assessed so organizations can realize the potential benefits cloud storage offers. Contracting for cloud storage should address such issues as routine service levels, steps the vendor commits to take if there are access interruptions, how the vendor will protect the privacy of information, geographic considerations for the storage location of data, the vendor’s data backup and recovery capabilities to name a few.

A more complete picture of information governance considerations for cloud computing can be found in ARMA International’s Guideline for Outsourcing Records Storage to the Cloud, which is available through ARMA International’s Bookstore at www.arma.org/bookstore.

Diane Carlisle

NewsWire

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