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Regulatory Requirements Are Impacting Much More Than Just the IT Department
LTO 3 Tapes Will Feature WORM Functionality
Regulatory Requirements Are Impacting Much More Than Just the IT Department
As a result of an escalation in regulatory requirements, the officers of a corporation are increasingly having more direct control of information within the corporation. This has resulted in the realization that there is a gap in communication between the IT department and executive leaders. For decades the goal has been to make the control of IT resources as transparent as possible; now, the goal must shift to making them as accountable as possible without affecting performance.
In the shadow of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations concerning financial information availability and accountability, dozens of analysts have echoed this sentiment calling for CEOs and CFOs to more closely integrate the actions of their CIOs and requirements of their legal departments. At the same time, CIOs are rightly worried that the reporting requirements they now face will directly impact the bottom line of their departments as well as related issues such as staffing levels, report schema, and internal hierarchy.
Real-world implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance has resulted in an increase in management costs, estimated by some to average as high as $1 million annually for corporations with a market cap above $80 million. (04 Financial Executives International Survey) This high cost reflects the coordination of information gathering across a variety of hardware and software at multiple sites while implementing a uniform and coherent management policy.
One solution to this dilemma is Media Merge/Tape Management System. Media Merge/TMS is a cross-platform solution for media management that directly addresses many of the issues raised by Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
Field implementations by eMag Solutions reveals that media in vaults and long-term storage have a placement error rate of about 18% - this means that 1 in 5 backup tapes are not where they are supposed to be. If these tapes are related to regulatory compliance or litigation, the result would be an inability to provide information required by law or court order. Media Merge/TMS is designed to eliminate this placement error, making all data available for retrieval when and as needed. Closely related, this also means that the recovery of data for internal business use is faster, easier and requires less management oversight.
Media Merge/TMS has the ability to work with virtually all backup systems on any form of hardware and software. This allows Media Merge/TMS to be a centralized total solution that manages all retention and vaulting policies. This will eliminate some of the oversight needed to maintain Sarbanes-Oxley compliance; the estimated result is a 10% reduction in regulatory management costs through savings in time and other resources now committed to redundant activities.
Media Merge/TMS can maintain a positive chain-of-control on all media at all times, reducing business risks due to lost or misplaced media. The location and ownership of your data will be accurate and real-time, making Disaster Recovery testing and certification easier and less expensive. Additionally, Media Merge/TMS can centrally freeze and unfreeze media according to criteria set at any level; this allows retention and vaulting policies to be suspended for specific data, preventing the accidental loss of information as well as ensuring data availability for regulatory and legal use as needed.
Media Merge/TMS is a feature-rich solution with virtually limitless scalability and an unmatched level of customization, allowing it to be a single solution for world-wide enterprises. It also includes a management oversight option, meaning that executive responsible for corporate governance may be able to receive active, real-time alerts to violations of corporate policy. This makes it easy for those who determine policy to manage compliance.
Contact us today to learn how MM/TMS can help you bridge the communications gap between the IT infrastructure and corporate compliance.
LTO 3 Tapes Will Feature WORM Functionality
Recently Hitachi Maxell, Ltd announced successful completion of the world's first LTO 3 compliance verification tests. With the introduction of the LTO 3 technology, we'll also see WORM (Write Once, Read Many) functionality offered. Sony has been including WORM functionality in its AIT formats since 2001 and recently Quantum announced DLTice, an extension of its DLTSage architecture platform, to give SDLT 600 WORM archival functionality. So what does this mean for you?
WORM technology allows for secure backup and storage of critical data for legal and regulatory compliance with mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, SEC and NASD legislation. Tape cartridges featuring WORM functionality offer the best mix of high capacity, high performance and unalterable backup and long-term retention of data at an affordable cost as compared to optical media. Specifically LTO 3 technology allows for 400GB of native capacity (80-160MB/Sec and 800GB compressed) and a native transfer rate of 40-80MB/sec in a single compact cartridge. The cartridge itself is smaller than existing single-reel tape cartridges. LTO 3 technology along with other WORM/Tape technologies being introduced will offer you a low-cost, highly reliable alternative for data which needs to be retained for long periods of time in order to comply with existing regulations.
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