Originating Author: David Vellante
While archiving competencies will likely remain distinct between infrastructure that scales and applications that provide function, there exists an emerging opportunity for vendors to outsource and host active archiving services for both infrastructure and applications. Firms that provide storage and related hosting services will find significant opportunity in codifying and administering storage capabilities that are easily translated into risk mitigation and liability management services.
However while most hosting companies tend to focus on the function of the hosted application and it's non-disruptive nature to existing infrastructure (e.g. storage and networking), these new sets of services will no longer only be focused on migrating data to cheaper storage but will also add a dimension of recreating and managing business history. Questions remain as to how to best accommodate this need (e.g. using original data or data extracts) and the legal ramifications of implementation approaches, but the emphasis on processes and policies for classification, migration, retention and deletion will escalate.
Action Item: Vendors will see a major opportunity to provide external services for active archive infrastructure and applications. The vendor imperative is not just to demonstrate infrastructure and applications competence but also business process reengineering and integration capabilities.
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