data retention

Google slashes time for retaining documents

Judi Hasson — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:12:43 -0400

Google, this week, announced a new policy on retention of data, promising to anonymize IP addresses on its server Relevant Products/Services logs after nine months. This will slash the data-retention period in half. The move comes amid growing criticism from privacy advocates.

"After months of work, our engineers developed methods for preserving more of the data's utility while also anonymizing IP addresses sooner," a Google privacy team wrote on the corporate blog. "We haven't sorted out all of the implementation details, and we may not be able to use precisely the same methods for anonymizing as we do after 18 months, but we are committed to making it work."

Nonetheless, Google made it clear it is still concerned about the potential loss of security, quality and innovation that may result from having less data.

Ari Schwartz, deputy director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, called Google's move toward a nine-month retention policy a positive step.

For more: on this Google policy:
- see this CIO-today article

The eDiscovery swamp

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:59:59 -0500

The new eDiscovery rules are forcing many companies to make changes to incorporate data-retention policies into their operations. And that means companies are still struggling to get in line with the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that went into effect a year ago. Some companies, such as Webcor Builders Inc., are trying to understand the rules as they seek to find where all relevant data in the company can be located and how it can be accessed quickly in case of litigation. "The new rules require that electronic data be in its native format," Gregg Davis, CIO at the San Mateo, Calif.-based construction firm, told ComputerWorld. "This is easy to achieve when it comes to e-mail, which was the provision's main target. But it gets very murky when it comes to propriety databases and homegrown applications." Davis said there are still lots of questions about eDiscovery. For example, do images and documents on copy machine hard drives and print services fall under the eDiscovery rules? If you have an answer to this question, let us know. And tell us how you are dealing with eDiscovery and whether you are easily able to comply with these new rules.

For more on the eDiscovery confusion:
- Check out this ComputerWorld article

Records management 101

Mon, 21 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

It's more important than ever to retain records, but it's a mistake to save everything. If you do, the data will grow so quickly that it will be impossible to manage. To manage records effectively, make sure to involve every department, and ensure that retention policies are current. A comprehensive records retention policy identifies each record type and any regulations governing that type of record, as well as defining the record's retention period. Define records broadly to include emails, text messages, IMs, toll tag records, building access records, video surveillance files, time-clock data and early versions of documents that were "deleted" from a PC's hard drive. Also, assign the responsibility of records management to one staffer. By doing so, you'll ensure that compliance receives the day-to-day attention it deserves. Other advice includes separating backup archives from record retention archives, managing data formats and media, and monitoring supplier compliance. Finally, delete data completely and stop all deletions immediately when facing legal action.

Learn more about effective records management:
- read the article at Computerworld

ALSO:
- read this on why email retention is more than just common sense
- and this on why data retention isn't something to ignore

Controlling enterprise content

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Gaining and maintaining control over the varied types of content in an organization is the bane of many CIOs' existences. The best way to make it manageable is to create effective policies and adopt products that allow your organization to track, audit and discover content while ensuring compliance and mitigating legal risk. In addition to traditional records management, effective retention management prevents the deletion of business-critical information, automates retention management based on business rules, protects content from unauthorized recipients, protects against information leaks and reduces costs.

Read more about effective retention management:
- read the white paper at SearchCIO

ALSO: read this on making sure not to ignore data retention

Lawyers are a fact of life for CIOs

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

The recent rash of legislation governing data retention, electronic discovery, privacy, data use and abuse has created a goldmine for lawyers well-versed in IT issues. More than ever before, CIOs must interact with attorneys just to protect themselves and their companies. It's not always a pleasant experience, but it's a fact of corporate life today. There are ways to reduce your exposure to lawyers, though. One option is to outsource the management of data and compliance to an outside service provider and another is to cue up new types of software to classify data at creation, apply policies to it and to enforce it--all in one fell swoop. Yet another is to employ an internal search technology to help companies locate difficult-to-find data.

Learn more about how to avoid lawyers:
- read the column at ComputerWorld

The benefits of virtualization

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

By employing virtualization in your IT infrastructure, you are enabling your IT organization to take advantage of the "pay as you go" model of computing, providing just the amount of processing power and the specific applications that you need, when you need them. As a result, you don't pay for capacity you don't use and you don't buy storage you don't need. Virtualization also allows organizations to share computing capacity across all business systems, reducing the size of the data center needed. Virtualization now is extending to storage and networking by allowing companies to share storage and networking resources in the same manner. What's more, virtualization also helps companies comply with the myriad regulations for data retention while improving disaster recovery capabilities.

Learn more about the benefits of virtualization:
- read the article at Computing

ALSO: for more on virtualization in the enterprise, read this
ALSO: Microsoft releases Virtual PC 2007 for free. Article

Don't skimp on data management

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

Not spending enough time, effort or money on enterprise data management can lead to increased risk and decreased competitive advantage, especially in financial firms. Without effective data management, companies often have dozens of different databases with redundant information--much of it wrong--and dozens of applications that use data from as many as 15 third-party providers. Failing to dedicated the resources to fix this mess can leave financial firms non-compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley and other federal data retention and compliance statutes, while also exposing companies to increased financial and operational risk. Investing in effective technology to clean up enterprise data stores will yield big dividends.

Learn more about developing an effective enterprise data management strategy:
- read the article at Wall Street & Technology

The 7 trends to watch in 2007

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:01:35 -0500

It's of little surprise that data retention and knowledge management will be areas of primary focus for the next few years, given how valuable data is in the enterprise. A big part of that, according to industry experts, making sure critical employee and staff knowledge is retained given the impending baby boomer retirement wave. In addition, business agility, electronic record keeping and knocking down IT silos are also big priorities for the new year. On the tech side of things, companies will be looking to revamp architectures (think SOA) and bring on tools that boost collaboration.

For more on the top trends to keep an eye on:
- read the story at Network Computing

Group chat gains traction in the enterprise

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:01:35 -0500

The ability to foster improved communication and collaboration is always on IT's list of to-do items and a new approach to instant messaging seems like a great strategy for meeting those goals. Online group chat is surpassing email as it allows people to speed up decision making and is quickly becoming a must-have business tool in the enterprise. But just like any other messaging technology it requires security attention as well determinations on data retention and knowledge storage.

For more on the new business tool:
- read the article at TechWeb

Attorney General: ISPs must retain data

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:01:37 -0400

Get ready for a huge outcry from privacy advocates as the U.S. Attorney General tries to make ISPs keep user data on file for at least a year in case they're needed for a criminal investigation. Calling the need for data retention a "national problem," Alberto Gonzales says the federal government has to step in and mandate ISPs' compliance. He has the administration's full support behind him, but it's going to be a tough sell since many lawmakers aren't too thrilled about the idea.

For more on the data retention legislation effort:
- click over to this CNET News.com article