July 21, 2008

To: Senior Management, Directors and All Storage Professionals

Subject:  Information Archiving – Economics and Compliance by Randy Kerns, ISBN 978-0-615-19161-4

The storing of information has become a complicated process.  It can have dramatic impacts on Information Technology operations – in both the area of budgets and the area of liability.  Much of the recent focus for IT professionals has been on managing information more effectively and meeting the business rules or requirements forced on them from a variety of sources. 

One aspect to focus on is information archiving:  moving data that is not needed for primary processing to a more appropriate storage system that provides online and offline access to information.  The economic benefits of such a system can provide much needed financial relief to organizations for both capital and operational expenses. 

Another aspect to consider is the business governance rules or compliance with regulations that affect how information must be protected, retained, secured, and other proscriptive measures.  These rules can be confusing and operationally impacting.    

Randy Kerns, whom I’ve known and worked with for years, has used his experience working as both a developer and analyst to research the economic aspects and the regulation impacts of storing information.  He has compiled this information into an easy to understand book on the topic, which sets the stage for understanding the requirements and the opportunities for exploiting information archiving.  The business case for implementing an archiving system is logically created and a very conservative economic example is provided.

The regulatory aspect of preserving information has been distilled from all the major rules and regulations to provide a base understanding of what is required.  The confusing terminology and vagueness that is characteristic of regulations regarding information storage are clarified with simple explanations and directions that can be followed by IT professionals. 

The book is really the first of its kind and provides a very direct approach to explaining the economic and compliance aspects of this subject.  It is a must read for those in the information industry in order to better understand and deal with the increasing demands for capacity and the implicit liabilities regarding regulations around information storage.    

I strongly recommend this book to all who are or should be interested in information storage.

Steve Scully
Director of Product Management
ProStor Systems, Inc.