Introduction

As organisations gather large volumes of data over time, it becomes essential to manage this data effectively to avoid data security or system performance issues. However, it is a given fact that managing this growing data can get increasingly difficult especially when dealing with large volumes. What’s even more challenging is that failing to manage the data effectively may result in operational hindrances. But you can breathe a sigh of relief as there are several data volume management solutions available in the market. The most sought-after one is SAP data archiving which plays a major role here by helping organisations overcome their data management obstacles. 

What is data volume management?

In simple terms, data management refers to the process of collecting, organising, securing, and storing an organisation’s data that are later analysed and then used to make important and pivotal business decisions. However, the rate at which data is being created by organisations and consumed by users across the world depicts the need for a holistic and comprehensive approach to managing these humungous amounts of data.

It is important to note that while data is significantly important to how an organisation operates, it is equally important to make sure that the created and saved data is of useful value. Furthermore, these data volumes must find relevancy in the several trends that are created by the range of diverse technologies and systems. Another to keep in mind is that data is always at the centre of any business; however, if that data is left on its own, there are high chance that it may become unwarranted. Therefore, organisations must come up with strategies, governance, and data management solutions that are not just effective but also those that are sustainable. The simple reason here is that if your solution is effective and sustainable, you will have the upper hand in leveraging benefits from all types of data for operational use across employee networks, supply chains, and partner and customer ecosystems, to name a few. 

As aforementioned, today, you will find a plethora of data management solutions that are available for companies. These solutions will help organisations ensure that reliable and updated data is always used to drive their business decisions. Adding to this, data management solutions also help organisations prepare data and catalogues, further enabling users to find information, search, and govern them seamlessly. 

SAP data archiving | What do you need to know?

SAP data archiving refers to a strategic approach that helps manage data growth while optimising system performance and efficient database resource usage within the SAP environments. It can also be said that archiving is the process of storing inactive data in a separate storage system. Data archiving, furthermore, enables organisations to achieve a balance between retaining important historical data and maintaining an IT infrastructure that is lean and high performing. An imperative point to remember is that even though archiving enables moving data to long-term storage, you can still merge the data back into the main system whenever necessary.

Apart from this, the technology used for SAP data archiving containing Archive Administration i.e., the SARA transaction, is the Archive Development Kit (ADK). With the help of archiving, organisations can also store and secure mission-critical information that can be used whenever needed. Data archiving, as a whole, not only stores and keeps the information accessible but also ensures that its integrity is protected.

Reasons to implement data archiving

Here are a few reasons why you must implement data archiving –

Improved system performance

One of the foremost benefits of data archiving is its ability to offer improved system performance. Since archiving stores inactive data separately, the load from the current database reduces, which further improves the overall system performance. As a matter of fact, archiving further results in a better response time for reports, transactions, and queries, improving user productivity and satisfaction as well. 

Reduced database size and storage costs

A strong reason to implement data archiving is that it helps reduce the database size significantly. Basically, when you archive inactive data, it frees up storage space in the live database, further reducing the associated storage costs as well. Not just this, archiving also contributes to reducing the overall cost of operation, especially for those working in environments with expensive storage solutions. 

Enables compliance with data retention policies

This is possibly the most important reason for data archiving implementation. SAP data archiving helps organisations effectively implement and enforce data retention policies. As a matter of fact, by defining retention periods and archiving criteria, compliance with legal, regulatory, and business requisites for retention and disposal can be ensured effortlessly. 

Easier disaster recovery and business continuity

Another benefit of data archiving is that it offers easy and faster disaster recovery along with enhanced business continuity. This is because of the reduced database size and optimised system performance. Along with this, data archiving helps organisations backup and restore data while effectively minimising downtime and data loss in case of system failures.

Best practices to follow while implementing SAP data archiving

Before you start with the data archiving process, ensure to plan and have proper strategies in place, as it will make the implementation much more seamless. Here are some of the SAP data archiving best practices that you can follow –

Set clear objectives  

The first and most important aspect is to clearly prioritise which data should be archived and which one must be kept in the main system. Not setting clear objectives can result in poor data volume management and can compromise the archiving process.  

Determine a clear data retention period

Organisations must have a clear understanding of how long certain data is to be archived when planning data archiving. Setting clear data retention periods helps to manage high data volumes.

Ensure seamless data compliance and security

It is critical to ensure that vital data is accessible to authorised users only. Archived data must be compliant with the requirements of GDPR. 

Conclusion

Organisations keep producing high volumes of data every day. Data archiving enables the management of large data volumes effectively while minimising storage and infrastructure costs. Having an effective data archiving strategy result in seamless business operations and workflow. Additionally, following the best practices for SAP data archiving effectively results in efficient data retention and reduced storage costs. There are several SAP data archiving solution providers with years of expertise available across the world. You can always join hands with such experts to ensure an easy, effortless, and efficient data archiving process.