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Where to put old data? Legally compliant system decommissioning!

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May 11, 2022

Author: Editorial Team

Since it became possible to manage business data digitally, IT systems have been growing unceasingly. On average, the amount of data doubles every two years until the point when systems are overtaken by technical progress and are no longer profitable. Time to move relevant data and processes to modern platforms - and to part with legacy data and systems.

A current example here fore is the transformation to SAP S/4HANA. SAP's announcement that it will discontinue support for the current ERP system SAP ECC in 2027 in favour of S/4HANA inevitably confronts many companies with the management of their legacy data. If they decide on a selective data migration, the question arises as to what will happen to the remaining data that is not to be moved to SAP S/4HANA.

Delete or Archive?

First of all, clicking the delete button is not enough! Companies must ensure that they comply with the various legal retention and deletion periods, and these vary considerably depending on the type of data or document. In Germany, for tax documents, for example, a retention period of six to ten years usually applies. Contracts, documents, or patient records, on the other hand, often have to be kept for several decades and access to the data must be guaranteed accordingly. In addition, there are data protection regulations, and the obligation to delete personal data as soon as the purpose for which it was collected no longer applies. So how does legally compliant management of historical business data work best - without having to continue operating the old IT systems in parallel to the new ones and burdening IT budgets?

Retention vs. System Decommissioning

The small but subtle difference: legal regulations oblige companies to retain certain data, but not to continue operating old systems. This means that archiving solutions or data retention management systems developed specifically for this purpose can also be used for the storage and deletion of old data. Compared to old operational systems, these are a cost-effective alternative and can be used independently of sector-specific or legal retention obligations. When choosing such a system, it is important to note that the archiving of data must be audit-proof and in accordance with GDPR requirements for digital archiving complete, secure, accessible only to authorized persons, documentable, and in compliance with the respective retention periods.

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One archiving solution that meets these organizational and legal requirements is the Natuvion Intelligent Data Store (IDS). As a highly secure, cloud-based storage for legacy data, it enables GDPR-compliant system decommissioning and timely deletion of business data. The data to be archived is simply extracted from the legacy system with the help of the Natuvion DCS, enriched with a deletion date and customer reference, and otherwise transferred to the Natuvion IDS without modification. Furthermore, in an SAP S/4HANA Selective Data Transition, any tables from SAP can be transferred to the Natuvion IDS. Until they are finally deleted, the data can be accessed at any time if they are needed for a tax or audit. Sounds interesting? More information.