With that out of the way, the way we organise data is dictated by how we need to access it. (Caveat: always check with stakeholders how long is acceptable). Retrieving is far less common, so its acceptable if it takes a bit longer. We should always optimise for the common case, which is adding data to the archive. Conceptsīefore we go any further, we should remind ourselves that backups and archives are infrequently accessed. Any structure should work with the physical as well as digital with minimal changes. There are advantages to digital data storage, but we’ve considered a number of risks as well. This structure can apply to digital files and data, or physical documents.

This structure needs to be self-discoverable, as the original creator of the structure will not be available in 45 years. The last point I’ll consider is: how do we organise our files and data so we can find stuff in 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years time? Goalĭevelop a structure, guidelines and processes to organise files / data such that specific data can be found in reasonable time. So far, we have considered the problem and overall strategy, and got to my chosen implementation. You can read the full series of Long Term Archiving posts which discusses the strategy for personal and church data archival for between 45 and 100 years.

Wincatalog 2017 key