Archiving

Backing up can be compared to as a short-term (days or weeks) insurance policy while archiving is designed to provide rapid access to decades of business information.

Archival storage requirements are different from those of backup operations. Media longevity and data authenticity feature much more prominently in archive scenarios. The storage media used within an archive should have a stable, long life to avoid frequent data migration over decades of storage. In order to comply with corporate and government regulations on data authenticity, it is crucial that information be protected from modification.