By Regina Kershner, VP of Operations
Having archived 100s of terabytes of data and decommissioned dozens of legacy applications during the past decade, we’ve learned a thing or two about data archiving and application decommissioning. One thing’s for sure: success isn’t guaranteed.
As with any IT or data project, you could fall short of your target date, over-run your budget, or fail to meet your business goals. Several critical factors separate a successful data archiving and decommissioning project from an unsuccessful one.
We’ve put together 10 Best Practices for Data Archiving and Application Decommissioning based on our client engagements. Having done projects with clients across multiple sectors, we’ve found these best practices central to all of them.
If you’re just starting your data archiving and application decommissioning project, or if you’re tempted to go-it-alone, consider following these 10 best practices:
- Identify, prioritize and gain executive support
- Prepare environments and access to data early
- Secure early involvement of key subject matter experts and decision makers
- Gain approval for business requirements as User Stories with Acceptance Criteria and User Interface mockups
- Perform accurate data mapping
- Define the data archiving strategy
- Collect a representative set of test records, screenshots, and reports
- Select the right archiving platform
- Select the right Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tools
- Use continuous software delivery
We’re committed to helping our customers provide transparent, meaningful access to their content—whether it was created 30 years ago or needs to be accessible 30 years from now. It’s in this spirit that we invite you to read the white paper and take a closer look at best practices in data archiving and application decommissioning.
