Long-term archiving set to benefit resellers

Latest SNIA report claims users are dissatisfied with ability to read data in 50 years

Arnold: Resellers must ensure they are properly educated on legislation.

Resellers should cash in on the opportunity in long-term storage archiving, according to the latest report by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).

The 100 Year Archiving Requirements Survey revealed that 80 per cent of respondents must keep data for more than 50 years, however 70 per cent said they are “highly dissatisfied” with their ability to be able to read their data in 50 years’ time.

“This is a massive opportunity for resellers,” said Juergen Arnold, chairman of the SNIA Europe. “They can talk to their existing customers about how legislation affects their long-term storage requirements.”
Arnold said resellers must ensure they are properly educated on long-term storage options and the legislation before talking to end-users. “We are working to get some standards and best practice in place for this,” he said.

James Ward, managing director at storage distributor Hammer, agreed. “Industries such as the financial industry and legal profession must keep their data for a long time, in some cases forever,” he said. “There is an opportunity here for resellers that know legislation, such as Sarbanes Oxley, to go back to their customers and help to educate them.”

Arnold said another opportunity for the channel lies in upgrading storage systems to enable end-users to read their data in 50 or 100 years’ time. “Customers must re-store their data about every 10 years or so, otherwise it be will useless in 50 years’ time.”

However, Ward said: “Technology has always changed and developed and so end-users will all gradually change storage platforms as the technology changes.”