To answer the question, what needs to be understood are the differences and benefits that data backup and data archive deliver.
The key difference is that backup is a process to save data and archive exists to reduce costs and risks.
Backup is a regular, usually daily, procedure to secure production data and make it available for restore in case of loss. This concerns data which is in use daily and indispensable for production.
On the other hand, archiving should be employed for data which is not used on a regular basis, but nevertheless must be kept for a longer period of time. Archive data shouldn’t occupy expensive server storage where production data resides. Equally, it shouldn’t be backed up to expensive media, or clog and slow the backup process. It makes much more sense to keep the backup routine lean, while other data should be archived to low-priced media.
Before digital data, most people in the media industries such as print, publishing, design and advertising used job bags. Within a workflow, job bags were used as a means to contain and ensure the security of material as it was passed from studio manager to designer, designer to production and so on. Job bags would contain material that was worked on a daily basis. Once a job was completed, the job bag would then be filed and if required, it could be accessed and used later. Nowadays, nearly all this material is electronic. While workflows may have altered slightly, the need still remains to ensure production data is secured on a daily basis and that this can be filed away when complete and accessed at a later date.
PresSTOREBackup andArchive makes it possible to backup and archive without adding to a system manager’s workload due to the high degree of automation and delegation of restore processes.
