With business data changing every day, it makes sense that so many companies leverage ongoing data replication processes to keep information up-to-date, accessible, and accurate in case they need to access it.

Briefly, data replication creates copies of selected application data in on-premise or cloud-based repositories. This includes processes for ongoing updates and data syncs. Compare this with data archiving, which creates copies of old or inactive application data and removes the original data from the source platform.

In 2019, the global data replication and protection software market was valued at $9.4 billion—a testament to how many companies understand the value of continuous data protection solutions. The benefits of such solutions are clear to companies that have applied them in practice. Smart data replication tools support organization-wide efficiency across data storage and accessibility in these ways:

Auto-generated copies of application tables and data can be sent to databases without administrator input
Syncs can be scheduled in near real-time to ensure ongoing warehouse accuracy
Replicated data can be used to support centralized reporting and compliance requirements
Regular replication reduces the overall size and efficiency of your production instance

Despite the benefits, we see many companies struggle to handle their ever-growing data stores effectively. According to recent research on data storage, a majority of companies agree that several aspects of data management are particularly challenging:

Managing data growth (47%)
Meeting disaster recovery requirements (31%)
Dealing with high Capex storage costs (25%)

These issues are ubiquitous across business types and generally produce substantial downstream inefficiencies in a company’s ITSM goals. Although many struggle to coordinate efficient data replication and archiving, others have benefitted from partnerships with ITSM specialists who can show them the right way forward.

Common Ways to Address Archiving and Replication

It’s clear that many companies struggle with data replication. There can be high costs associated with the process, it can be time-consuming, and operators may struggle to maintain data consistency and quality over time. At Precision Bridge, we suggest that users make this particular goal a priority and ask themselves the following questions:

Do you know what data needs to be archived and where to send it?
How much data will be cached, and how fast will it grow year over year?
Which users will need access to the replicated data?
What frequency of replication is needed?
What criteria do you have for data archive removal?

As best practices, we recommend that users pay attention to the location of the replication data, decide whether to store it locally or through a cloud-based service, and to always keep security in mind. You’ll need to decide whether to leverage existing data warehouses, data lakes, or something else—and come up with strict data retention policies for the company to follow.

A properly-deployed replication solution can provide substantial benefits to a business, save hundreds of hours of labor, and still satisfy regulatory requirements for transaction data auditing. There’s a lot to cover, and the process can feel overwhelming.

If you need help to manage or deploy an ITSM tool for data replication and archiving, contact our team at Precision Bridge. We’ll lay the foundation for streamlined archiving that makes data storage cost-effective, accessible, and scalable for the future.