Compliance Or Statutes Of Limitation?

Posted on February 18, 2008

Turn on the news and it’s yet another scandal. In a society where business suits and hand cuffs are becoming synonymous, it’s scary to mention records management without a quizzed look on peoples faces. From email archiving to data classification and storage, caution must be taken in recognizing the processes that drive such projects.

A very reactive business environment it is, like Master Yoda will say. In a society where cost savings have become the standard en route to profitability, companies (especially large corporations) will rather lay off staff than invest in the proper record management systems. However, whenever a scandal hits the front pages of New York Times, my phone never stops ringing.

Furthermore, what drives corporate records retention and compliant data storage? Proactive or reactive measures? Do companies look to comply with ever increasing regulatory requirements, or do they simply wait for a disaster to happen? While some companies keep avoiding the obvious and hoping a disaster does not occur (at least during the tenure of the present executives), other companies simply look at each piece of data and decide not to act unless it’s a document or record admissible in court. However if the record is neither admissible, nor valuable from a statutes of limitations stand point, they could care less. Though they forget the power of subpoenas and grand Juries.

In a previous article, I had mentioned how some organizations are so carried away with storing their data that they simply store everything, ending up with over 70% of their storage infrastructure utilized by unnecessary data. This may be in the form of junk mail, event log files, file fragments, configuration files, outdated information, among other file types.

Understanding your data, and how it relates to your business is very critical. Organizations need to seek out processes and resources in alignment with their business model and compliance conscious solutions as a driver to profitability and compliant good standing.

A reactive approach will not fix the storage problem, it will only remedy the mistakes made by a competitor who got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Understanding your data and how it is converted into useful information, stored, secured and compliant with regulations is key.

Alani Kuye is Managing Partner of Phantom Data Systems Inc.

A Connecticut based Data Recovery, Data Storage and E Mail Security Solutions Provider. He has consulted and designed enterprise data storage, recovery, records management and security solutions for large corporations, government agencies and small businesses alike.

He resides in Connecticut and can be reached at 1-203-809-2465 or alani@phantomdatasystems.com

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