Essential Guide

Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic recordsIntegrating Digital Preservation into the Information Goverance lifecycle to ensure long-term non-permanent electronic records are fi ndable, readable and useablewhen required.

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Executive summary

How safe are your vital long-term electronic records?

Most institutions tasked with safeguarding permanent and historical records have long recognized that digital content is fragile requiring a Digital Preservation strategy that provides a safe mechanism for storing the “bits and bytes”, but more importantly, a way to also migrate fi les to newer formats as older ones become obsolete – ensuring digital content and records can still be read and used for decades to come.

Organizations are now also beginning to realize that vital long-term non-permanent electronic records, including emails, are also at risk of not being fi ndable, readable or useable when required - especially those records with retention periods of 10+ years. This risk is being compounded by longer retention times, faster information technology refresh rates, application retirement programs and the sheer volume and diversity of digital content.

These records are vital both to commercial organizations (for example records for fi nancial, legal and intellectual property), and government and public service institutions (for example records for environmental planning, social care and democratic services), and the consequences of not being able to produce a readable and usable version are generally well understood - from substantial fi nes, to reputational loss, to an inability to reuse corporate knowledge for competitive advantage.

The situation has prompted leading technology analysts like Cheryl McKinnon at Forrester1 to state that “the long-term retention of digital content means preservation issues must be addressed. Hardware, software and fi le format obsolescence risks will hauntus if not taken seriously”.

This Essential Guide will explore how forward thinking organizations are taking steps to mitigate and protect themselves against this risk by integrating standards-based Digital Preservation alongside their existing Enterprise Content/Records Management systems, recognising that just storing information on ECM/RM or Email servers, or in Archival Storage and Backup only provides “bit level” protection for long-term records and not a mechanism for ensuring future readability.

This Guide will also explore the recognized standards and best practice for the preservation and safe-keeping of long-term digital content and records, and in particular highlight why it is only a matter of time before risk and information assessment auditors begin to ask for evidence that organizations have the right systems in place to ensure their vital long-term records are fi ndable, readable and useable when required.

1. Adopting a Digital-First Perspective; Records Management Shifts to Information Governance: Cheryl McKinnon, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research Presentation at G-TEC 2013 Slide 15 http://my.presentations.techweb.com/events/gtec/ottawa/2013/concurrent-sessions---sance-simultane/download/743

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Contents

1. Digital content and records are fragile and at risk

2. The risk to long-term non-permanent electronic records

3. Comparing the roles of ECM/RM and Digital Preservation systems

4. Standards for safeguarding digital content and records over the long-term

5. Integrating Digital Preservation into the Information Governance Lifecycle

6. Conclusions

7. Useful resources

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Digital content and records are fragile and at risk

Researchers, national bodies1, and information professional’s real-life experiences concur that digital content and records are fragile and at risk – susceptible to bit corruption and media degradation (have you checked your old CD-ROMs recently?), technology obsolescence (remember fl oppy disks?), IT refresh cycles (a no longer supported shared network drive), application retirement programs (like Lotus Notes or ERP systems), and fi le format and software application obsolescence (remember WordStar or even Microsoft Offi ce 95?).

Compounding the challenge is the sheer volume and diversity of long-term digital records that most organizations are now grappling with, not just traditional text and document formats but increasingly multi-media and interactive formats like images, audio/visual, Spreadsheets, ERP data, CAD drawings, and webpages and emails with embedded links, fi les and attachments.

All this means that without proper processes, policies and systems in place for Digital Preservation these digital records are at constant risk of not being fi ndable, readable or useable when required.

As we will explore in the next section, the challenge extends beyond permanent and historical records to also now impact long-term nonpermanent electronic records – especially those with retention times greater than 10 years.

1. NDSA National Digital Stewardship Alliance http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/

Diversity and fragility of digital content and records

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Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

The risk to long-term non-permanent electronic records

Increasingly stringent information governance and regulation, anda general recognition that data and content is valuable, is challenging organizations to retain a growing volume and diversity of digital records - for longer. Compounding this challenge is the increasing pace of technological change characterized by faster information technology refresh rates, application retirement programs and the rapid evolutionof applications and fi le formats.

This all means that vital long term non-permanent electronic records (as well as permanent or historical electronic records) are at risk of not being fi ndable, readable or useable when required - especially those with retention periodsof 10+ years or that are already 10+ years old.

These types of records are vital both to commercial organizations and government institutions and the consequences of not being able to produce readable versions of these records when required range from fi nes for noncompliance, to the cost of legal challenge, to reputational loss, to failureto meet legislative mandate, to an inability to leverage corporate knowledgeand information for competitive advantage.

Forward thinking organizations have already begun to mitigate this risk by integrating Digital Preservation alongside their existing Enterprise Content/Records Management/Email and Storage systems to provide a mechanismfor ensuring long-term readability and use.

In the next section we will explore this in more detail by comparing and contrasting the different roles, functions and standards for Enterprise Content/Records Management, Archival Storage and Digital Preservation.

Risks to long-term electronic records not being readable and useable when required

Information governance

Technologychange

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Comparing the roles of ECM/ RM and digital preservation systems

Most organizations will already be using some form of Enterprise Content/ Records Management (ECM/RM) system to enable sharing, collaboration, revision control and governance of operational content and records, including organization and control over policy - such as retention times, legal hold and disposal. In addition, many organizations may also have controls in place to transfer records and content to Archival Storage and Backup.

It’s important to note that records held both in ECM/RM and Archival Storage and Backup systems are only protected from loss or corruption at a “bit level” – there is no a mechanism to ensure long-term future readability or usability.

This where Digital Preservation comes in. The primary role of a Digital Preservation system is to ensure content and records remain accessible, useable and readable over the long-term by providing a proactive way to migrate fi le formats as they become obsolete or are no longer supported within the organization.

There are other approaches to preservation, such as adopting a document paradigm and converting electronic records to a single format like PDF/A, this approach however, only provides a partial solution. The PDF/A format might itself become obsolete, but more importantly it does not accommodate the Digital Preservation of interactive and multi-media content such as images, audio/visual, CAD drawings, spreadsheets, ERP data, webpages and emails.

As we will discuss next, this all means that to properly safeguard longterm electronic records, organizations need to seamlessly integrate Digital Preservation with their existing ECM/RM or Storage systems and implement policies and processes that conform with the recognized standards for the long-term preservation of digital content such as OAIS (Open Archival Information Systems) (ISO 14721)1 and TDR (Trustworthy Digital Repository) (ISO 16363)2.

Enterprise content / Records management

Archival storage and Backup Digital Preservation

Content collaboration, governance, policy,

retention and disposal

Long-term durable storage via tiered-storage, management,

multiple copies and self-healing

Long-term usability and readability of

digital content

Bit-level storage Bit-level storage Protection against fi le format obsolescence

Short-term retention(< 10 years)

Long-term retention(< 10 years)

Long-term and permanent retention (>10 years)

Comparison of the roles and functions of ECM/RM, Archival Storage and Digital Preservation

1. ISO 14721 Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=572842. ISO 16363 Audit and Certifi cation of a Trustworthy Digital Repository http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=56510

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Standards for safeguarding digital content and records over the long-term

Any system being used for the digital preservation of long-term permanent and non-permanent records needs to go beyond simply storing the “bits and bytes” in a durable way - as in an ECM/RM or Archival Storage system. This is represented in the Digital Preservation Maturity Model1 above (to the right of the diagram) by layers 1, 2 & 3.

A Digital Preservation system also needs to include information organization, management, hierarchies, workfl ows and metadata (layers 4 & 5) so content can be easily found and understood in the future, and fi nally – and most importantly – it must also provide a way to proactively manage and migrate fi le formats as they become obsolete to ensure vital digital content and records are actually still useable and readable over the longterm (layer 6).

The left of the diagram shows how this model corresponds to the 6 core OAIS(ISO 14721) functions - ingest, archival storage, administration, data management, access and preservation. It is also worth noting that Preservation Planning and Action, in particular, is one of the key differences between OAIS (ISO 14721) and the ERMS (Electronic Records Management Systems) standard (ISO 16175).

Preservica (as shown in the diagram over the page) is a standards-based Digital Preservation system with workfl ows for all 6 OAIS model (ISO 14721) functions – with a particular strength in Active Preservation1.

1. The Active Preservation of Digital Content - Preservica White Paper: http://preservica.com/resource/auctor-aliquam-white-paper/

Example implementation of OAIS Reference model: Preservica

6. Information preservation

Usable information

Findable information

Durableinformation

5. Information processes

4. Information organisations

3. Storage validation

2. Storage management

1. Safe storage

Preservation

Administration

Ingest

OAISISO 14721

Access

Gata M

anStorage

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Ingest: Simplifi es and automates the safe ingest of records and content into the repository from a wide variety of sources

Archival Storage: Safely stores content in a durable way with the fl exibility to choose on premise or cloud storage (or both)

Administration: Control over roles and access rights including fi ne-grained security down to an individual record level

Data Management: Tools and workfl ows to create content hierarchies and control over metadata

Access: Easy mechanism to provide appropriate levels of access to internal and external audiences

Active Preservation: Workfl ows that make it easy to manage and migrate away from obsolete fi le formats – ensuring records remain readable and useable over the long-term

However, as we will discuss next a Digital Preservation system must also be able to seamlessly integrate with existing Enterprise Content/Records Management/Email and Storage systems to support the automatic ingest of long-term records that require preservation, as well as provide support for typical records management actions, such as, retention policy, legal hold and disposition.

1. Preservica: How it Works http://preservica.com/preservica-works/

Example implementation of the OAIS (ISO 14721) Reference model: Preservica1

Content creation

Content usage

Catalogues Linked data registry

Bulk stores Authentication

Management Preservation

AdminStorage

Ingest Access

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Integrating Digital Preservation into the Information Governance Lifecycle

Forward thinking organizations have already began to integrate Digital Preservation into their records management and information governance lifecycle, and there are a number of different approaches.

One approach is to export long-term records that are likely to be at risk out of the Enterprise Content/Records Management system or Email server and safely store them in a Digital Preservation system at the end of their operational use - using automated bulk export and ingest. This can be either manually initiated by the Archivist or Records Manager or set by the Content Contributor at the point of record creation to automatically export after a given time period e.g. after 5 or 10 years.

Exporting from the ECM/RM system frees up these systems for operational use, and is particularly useful for application retirement programs (like Lotus Notes or ERP systems) – allowing content, data and records to be safely parked and then reviewed, managed and migrated overtime.

This approach can also be used for preserving emails (and attachments) of, for example, prominentout-going staff.

Microsoft SharePoint and Outlook are widely used at many organizations, and examples (including demonstrations) of how these can be integrated with a Digital Preservation system, using this fi rst approach, can be viewed via on demand webinars on the Preservica website1,2

1. Integrating Digital Preservation with Microsoft SharePoint: http://preservica.com/resource/sharepointwebinar/2. Integrating Digital Preservation with Microsoft Outlook: http://preservica.com/resource/outlookwebinar/

Digital content contributor

Information manager

Consumer

Access Policy Catalogue

Content Management Systems

Retention policy

Records Management

Content Lifestyle (time)

Disposal

Creation Use/Maintain Short term retention

Long term retention

Permanentretention

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

A second, more sophisticated approach, shown in the previous diagram, is where Digital Preservation becomes a fully synchronized part of the overall records management lifecycle. The ECM/RM system maintains full visibility, policy and control over the record, managing, for example, retention, disposal and legal hold, and the Digital Preservation system becomes another repository where the record can be safely stored during its lifecycle, albeit one that provides protection against bit loss, fi le corruption, technology obsolescence, IT refresh cycles and fi le format and software application obsolescence.

This ensures that upon request from the ECM/RM system the Digital Preservation system is always able to provide a validated, readable and useable copy of the electronic record to, for example, meet legal or regulatory requirements.

Preservica is actively working with organizations on both approaches and already includes “out-of-the-box” connectors for Microsoft SharePoint and Outlook with all Editions3 of the product. Preservica also has an active roadmap and engagement program to connect with other well-known ECM/ RM systems, making Digital Preservation a natural part of the information governance landscape.

3. Preservica cloud hosted and on premise Editions http://preservica.com/editions-pricing/

Management Preservation

AdminStorage

Ingest Access

Integrating Digital Preservation into the information governance lifecycle

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Conclusions

Faster information technology refresh rates, longer retention times, application retirement programs and the sheer volume and diversity of digital content now means that many organizations are facing the risk that vital long term nonpermanent electronic records will not be fi nable, readable or useable when required - especially records with retention periods of 10+ years.

With the majority of long-term records now being held in an electronic format, it is only a matter of time before information auditors start to switch their focus from the safe storage of physical records to look for evidence that organizations have policies, processes and systems in place to ensure long-term digital records are accessible, readable and useable when required.

In particular, this will mean conformance with the standards and best practice for the long-term preservation of digital content like OAIS (Open Archival Information Systems) (ISO 14721) and TDR (Trustworthy Digital Repository) (ISO 16363).

Forward thinking organizations have already begun to take steps to mitigate and protect themselves against this risk by integrating standards-based Digital Preservation alongside their existing Enterprise Content/Records Management systems, recognising that just storing information on ECM/RM or Email servers, or in Archival Storage and Backup - only provides “bit level” protection for long-term records and not a mechanism for ensuring future readability.

Closer integration is also opening up the opportunity for organizations to retire legacy applications, and free up IT resources and budgets, by safely parking legacy data and content in a Digital Preservation system where it can be reviewed and migrated overtime.

There are a number of approaches to integrating Digital Preservation with ECM/RM systems from automated bulk export and ingest at the end of a record’s operational use, to making Digital Preservation a fully synchronized part of the overall records management lifecycle.

As a recognized leader in Digital Preservation, Preservica is actively working with organizations on both approaches and already includes “out-of-the-box” connectors for common ECM/RM systems with all its cloud hosted and on premise Editions.

Preservica has an active roadmap and engagement program to integrate with other ECM/RM systems, making Digital Preservation a natural part of the information governance lifecycle – and ensuring vital long-term non-permanent electronic records are fi ndable, readable and useable when required – long into the future.

Essential Guide Safeguarding your vital long-term electronic records

Useful resources

Adopting a Digital-First Perspective; Records Management Shifts to Information Governance: Cheryl McKinnon, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research Presentation at G-TEC 2013 Slide 15 http://my.presentations.techweb.com/events/gtec/ottawa/2013/concurrent-sessions---sancesimultane/ download/743

ISO 14721 Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=57284

ISO 16363 Audit and Certifi cation of a Trustworthy Digital Repository http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=56510

The Active Preservation of Digital Content - Preservica White Paper: http://preservica.com/resource/auctor-aliquam-white-paper/

Preservica: How it Works http://preservica.com/preservica-works/

Integrating Digital Preservation with Microsoft SharePoint http://preservica.com/resource/sharepointwebinar/

Integrating Digital Preservation with Microsoft Outlook http://preservica.com/resource/outlookwebinar/

Preservica cloud hosted and on premise Editions http://preservica.com/editions-pricing/

About Preservica

Preservica is a world leader in digital preservation technology, consulting and research. Our active preservation solutions are used by leading archives, libraries, museums, government organizations and businesses across4 continents to safeguard and share their valuable digital content, collections and electronic records for decades to come.

The award-winning Preservica active preservation and access solution isa standards-based (ISO 14721 and ISO 16363) trusted digital repository that includes connectors to leading Enterprise Content and Records Management systems to automate the long term preservation of vital electronic records, emails and other digital content.

www.preservica.com

info@preservica.com

@dPreservation

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