Given how many business processes rely on immediate access to accurate data, it’s no surprise that data replication solutions are a hot topic in the business world.

Data replication serves numerous functions. It creates disaster recovery backups, makes data accessible to various business entities that may need to access it, and many other functions. And while replication is essential for many companies, we’ve seen them deploy solutions with the best of intentions only to struggle with the ongoing challenges of data consistency and quality.

What’s one of the most common problems businesses experience when they implement new data replication solutions? In our experience in ITSM, we see one particular challenge appear time and again: how to manage the technical lags that interfere with performance.

Technical lags in replication manifest as (a) high bandwidth requirements for the chosen solution, (b) inefficiencies around source data removal, and (c) the overly-complex practice of using separate tools for replication and archiving. Fortunately, easy workarounds for these roadblocks exist, which we describe below.

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.

Data management strategy is always a hot topic in ITSM. In particular, we see an increased focus on data storage strategies and turning data handling from a must-have process into a point of serious competitive advantage. Replication and archiving strategies are always at the forefront of these discussions. For the uninitiated, what’s the difference between “replication” and “archiving,” and why should businesses care about the distinction?