Data Retention and Backups?

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TechieSooner

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Would like to know how you guys handle this.

Certain records, in HR for example, may need to be kept 1 month (I have no idea but it's just an example) by law.

However, what if I infinitely keep backups? 6 months or longer?

After that 1 month timeframe, we could purge that document. However it would still be in backups amounting to 6 months back. So theoretically, we could still reproduce said document since it's backed up.

Seems like it would be a major PITA for IT to go through all their backups to nuke said data. And I cannot imagine larger corporations doing it that way either.

Anyone have comments on that?????
 
This is the largest function of any IT dept, yet the most often overlooked. Data backups are critical for any organization, of any size.

Where I work we use the Grandfather, father, son methodology. We have daily backups, weekly backups and monthly backups. At any time, we can go back to up to a year ago in specific circumstances.

HR record retention law varies state to state, but typically it's around 7 years. So you know.
 
I have one client that is moving to a 99 year retention plan.

All email, backups, and data must be available for 99 years.

Backups are not really a problem, the email is causing a total redeisgn and upgrade of their exchange environment. Should be interesting
 
I'm not really asking how long to retain backups...

What I'm asking is how to solve the document destruction process.

IE, HR needs to keep documents for 30 days, but I keep backups for 180 days.
After 30 days, they destroy their documents (IE, delete them). However the issue is that I still have backup copies of those documents for up to 180 days before they finally disappear.

So the end result is HR kept documents for 30 days, but I'm keeping them for 180 days.
If you ever get litigated over some of those documents, it's not good to keep them around longer than required.

That was my question. How does everyone deal with data destruction in regards to keeping back copies of everything?
 
Well, if they need to be destroyed after 30 days, then you'll need to give them their own storage area and teach them the importance of it. Then, back up that storage area differently.

This boils down to user training.
 
TechieSooner said:
I'm not really asking how long to retain backups...

What I'm asking is how to solve the document destruction process.

IE, HR needs to keep documents for 30 days, but I keep backups for 180 days.
After 30 days, they destroy their documents (IE, delete them). However the issue is that I still have backup copies of those documents for up to 180 days before they finally disappear.

So the end result is HR kept documents for 30 days, but I'm keeping them for 180 days.
If you ever get litigated over some of those documents, it's not good to keep them around longer than required.

That was my question. How does everyone deal with data destruction in regards to keeping back copies of everything?
Click to expand...

Gotcha,

Every company i worked for goes by the longest retention day.

example,
HR can delete the file after 30 days but IT will have backups going back 180 Days
Paper documents would just get shredded

Unless there is some strange law that says HR can only keep documents 30 days, which would be really odd
 
k1pp3r said:
Gotcha,

Every company i worked for goes by the longest retention day.

example,
HR can delete the file after 30 days but IT will have backups going back 180 Days
Paper documents would just get shredded

Unless there is some strange law that says HR can only keep documents 30 days, which would be really odd
Click to expand...

Gotcha. That's what I figured.

The reason you WANT to get rid of documents ASAP is it's just another liability... May seem like nothing at the time but if someone decides to sue you over it, it could actually hurt you!
 
TechieSooner said:
Gotcha. That's what I figured.

The reason you WANT to get rid of documents ASAP is it's just another liability... May seem like nothing at the time but if someone decides to sue you over it, it could actually hurt you!
Click to expand...

Eh, Liability can go both ways, the day may come when HR says they need a document 110 days later but they deleted it. But they HAVE to have it, thats when you reply "Let me see what i can do" ;)
 
TechieSooner said:
I'm not really asking how long to retain backups...

What I'm asking is how to solve the document destruction process.

IE, HR needs to keep documents for 30 days, but I keep backups for 180 days.
After 30 days, they destroy their documents (IE, delete them). However the issue is that I still have backup copies of those documents for up to 180 days before they finally disappear.

So the end result is HR kept documents for 30 days, but I'm keeping them for 180 days.
If you ever get litigated over some of those documents, it's not good to keep them around longer than required.

That was my question. How does everyone deal with data destruction in regards to keeping back copies of everything?
Click to expand...


This is something you will need to get in writing from your company. If you destroy data in the interest of avoiding litigation, it could really come back to bite you in the ass. Regardless of their policies, you might want to find out the local laws with retentions, you may be responsible for this data for up to 7 years.
 
k1pp3r said:
Eh, Liability can go both ways, the day may come when HR says they need a document 110 days later but they deleted it. But they HAVE to have it, thats when you reply "Let me see what i can do" ;)
Click to expand...

Ockie said:
This is something you will need to get in writing from your company. If you destroy data in the interest of avoiding litigation, it could really come back to bite you in the ass. Regardless of their policies, you might want to find out the local laws with retentions, you may be responsible for this data for up to 7 years.
Click to expand...
Some of it, yes. But after those 7 years it's generally good to destroy that data, so litigation DOESN'T bite you in the ass ;)


Got a policy on how long to keep our documents by law... and we do. However it's generally best to nuke those documents after we've kept them as long as we are obligated.
 
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