Common mistakes to avoid in choosing an archival solution
Data is critical to a business and it must be protected to safeguard the brand’s reputation and integrity. This data includes customer interactions, client database, product information, social media interactions, product reviews, and other such information that is confidential for the company. As the business grows over time, data becomes a crucial part of its legacy and digital history.Â
Keeping this information safe and retrievable helps businesses in defending false lawsuits, creating future market strategies, understanding market trends, recovering data from data losses, etc. Hence, the data should be archived in proper format and shouldn’t become obsolete over time.Â
If you are planning to implement archiving services for your website, then there are some common mistakes that you should be aware of are:
Manual backups: Manual archival is never recommended as it is prone to human errors. There can be significant data loss if the backup process isn’t done in an automated fashion. With automation in place, the information is stored in a structural format and can be retrieved anytime without any hassles.
Not testing backups: If you have a data backup process in place, make sure that you test the system by downloading the data and validating it. There have been cases where companies have lost all their archived data as the backup storage and servers weren’t tested.
Only text backup: Some archiving services don’t have proper web crawlers to read all data file formats and hence can store only the text from the website. The other website elements like videos, images, etc. should also be saved and archived to secure all the data. Third-party archiving services like Stillio take snapshots of the entire website with all the visuals and there is no data loss while archiving.
Not reviewing log files: Whenever an archival process is completed, a log file is generated in the system that contains the report of the entire backup process. This report highlights errors, if any, that might have happened during the archival process. You must review these log files to check any discrepancies in the data archival and correct all the issues.
Equipment update: Ensure that the data formats and software used to access the archived data are updated periodically as per technology updates. Retaining the old software and equipment for data archival and access is unhealthy for your business and can make the archived data completely obsolete. The archival process should be in-sync with the latest software versions as per industry standards.
Non-stringent data security measures: A casual behavior towards data security can lead to data hacks during the archival process. Ensure that the archival service provides industry-standard security to protect your data. Also, ensure that your employees have access to data based on a need-to-know basis. Be explicit about data access and security policies in the contract.
 When you are creating a data backup plan for your business, you must understand how it is carried out. Once you are familiarized with the process of data archiving, you will be able to choose the right service provider for your business.Â
Pick an archiving service that addresses the above-mentioned mistakes so that your business’s data is in safe hands.










