MEDIA VAULT COMPANIES OF AMERICA
WHY OUTSOURCE YOUR ELECTRONIC MEDIA STORAGE (Backup tapes, CD's, DVD's, other electronic media)
The members of the Media Vault Companies of America will keep your tape and other electronic media secure and strictly confidential.
Your electronic data will spend most of its lifetime in storage. You need a strong electronic data retention policy. You need a professional media vault company to become a partner with you to help implement your tape, cd and other data storage solution. Your Electronic Media Retention policy will likely dictate back-up and retention schedules that automates data backup and recovery processes, includes offline, off-site and online storage, and allows for storage of computer media that needs to be retained for long periods of time. The reasons electronic record storage is important are: issues.
- PROTECTION OF COMPANY ASSETS
- COMPLIANCE WITH VARIOUS LAWS
- DISASTER RECOVERY
PROTECTION OF COMPANY ASSETS:
Protection of company assets by properly storing your electronic records can be broken down quickly into three segments.
First is protection from litigation. If you are sued, you may need old emails, and correspondence to protect yourself. The lack of such data can cause you to be subject to suit for SPOILATION. Challenges relating to the quality and accuracy of electronic records can be disposed of by clearly showing that an electronic data record could not have been altered. If a company is in litigation, expensive and time-consuming inquiry into electronic record trustworthiness can thus be pre-empted.
Second is protection from patent suits. Patents are often protected by the evidence of timelines which sometimes can only be proved using historical electronic data. This could include archiving emails, drawings, memos, manuals, etc.
Thirdly, and the most readily identifiable asset is the current customer data that needs to be stored off-site in case of a disaster. This includes customer lists, financial data etc. Companies who lose their customer list generally will go out of business within a year.
COMPLIANCE WITH VARIOUS LAWS
There are various governmental regulations that drive the proper protection of computer data storage including historical tape backups. More can be read about the laws in the section title THE LAW. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, dictates companies have to insure their IT departments and media storage partners are able to meet financial auditing requirements. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), was enacted in 1996 and includes provisions intended to safeguard the privacy of patient health records. Graham Leach Bliley requires protection against " unauthorized access to or use of such records or information which could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any customer. FACTA contains a number of provisions intended to combat consumer fraud and related crimes, including identity theft, and to assist its victims. Some identity theft is driven by the theft of electronic data.
DISASTER RECOVERY
If your organization should fall victim to a natural or man made disaster, you want to be completely up and running with no lost data as fast as possible. Recovering from a disaster is no time to start rebuilding your data from hard copy. Proper media backup can shorten the recovery time. Off-site backup is vital to properly protect your company.
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