Not all data is equal. But most enterprises treat it equally.

Data is created and shared and filed differently, sure. But in most cases, it all ends up in a common database repository that continues to grow over time.

“There’s a huge difference between mission-critical data and archival data,” says Kevin O’Malley, product marketing manager for HP database archiving solutions. “And IT teams that continue to deal with them uniformly will eventually run into problems.”

As an enterprise database grows, companies typically add more hardware for capacity and more personnel to manage the increased volume of systems and data. As many have learned, this approach comes with limitations.

“At some point, you hit a wall,” O’Malley says.

This proverbial wall may be related to capacity, manageability, performance, complexity, cost or a combination thereof. e-Discovery and compliance can also become immense factors when enterprise data gets out of control. One thing is certain: the longer data sets are allowed to accumulate, the harder it is to climb over the wall.

“Many enterprises have ignored the problem for too long already,” says O’Malley. “With economic circumstances dictating cost reduction, e-Discovery and compliance becoming everyday concerns and the sheer growth of business-related information, the time is ripe to retake control of enterprise databases and the data within.”

Adding more hardware capacity and human administrators helps in the short-term. For long-term efficacy, O’Malley says an understanding of how data is handled—by users and applications—and formalized data management processes are the lynchpins of success. “First, companies need to figure out what data is mission-critical, what should be archived and what can be eliminated,” O’Malley explains. “The data sets can then be segmented, stored and administered accordingly.”

This approach allows IT personnel to manage a smaller set of data, but one that is more critical to day-to-day business operations. Aging data is treated as archival information that has limited access, primarily for compliance purposes and audits. The rest is thrown out to free up capacity and further reduce administrative cycles.

For those having difficulty managing their data or experiencing database performance issues, HP offers a complete database archiving solution that supports Oracle® and Microsoft® SQL Server environments. More than a database “add-on” or tool, the software-based solution includes a full process and methodology platform that is inherently married to enterprise applications.

“At its core, our database archiving solution facilitates the data aging process,” O’Malley says. “It automates the movement of data to different tiers. It facilitates retention policies and access rights. And it conducts transaction modeling to improve overall data integrity and manageability.”

Through transaction modeling, application knowledge and rules are automatically built into the software. This allows the data from key business transactions to be moved and tracked without human intervention. For example, an invoice created now will be deemed mission critical and stored accordingly. Eventually, the invoice will be automatically archived—and perhaps purged altogether—based on pre-defined rules and access requirements.

At any point, whether it is tomorrow or ten years from now, all data associated with the transaction can be retrieved and easily analyzed. Who touched the invoice and when? What did they do with it and to whom did they send it? With HP’s database archiving solution, answers to these questions are quickly determined, which can be vital for e-Discovery and audit purposes.

The solution comes with a comprehensive data assessment to fully identify and understand the customer’s data, applications and data distribution patterns. HP professionals then provide installation assistance and training services. This is so IT and business users can maximize their use of the software and optimize data distribution and access. According to O’Malley, customers are often surprised to find that the HP database archiving solution does not lead to additional hardware purchases.

“In general, no extra hardware is needed,” he reveals. “The solution improves efficiency and [utilizes] current resources, so IT teams don’t have to continually buy new hardware. And they are better prepared for the data growth to come.” It’s a matter of understanding the data, segmenting it into distinct categories and actively managing that which is most critical. Or facing the proverbial data wall.

View the HP Database Archiving demo or read about HP Database Archiving software for more information.

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