Summary of Requirements:

1. • The survey establishes clear validation that long-term retention needs are real and that many organizations have long-term requirements. − 80% of respondents declared they have information they must keep over 50 years and 68% of respondents said they must keep it over 100 years.
   

2. • Long-term generally means greater than 10 to 15 years – the period beyond which multiple migrations take place and information is at risk.
   

3. •Database information (structured data) was considered to be most at risk of loss.
   

4. •Over 40% of respondents are keeping e-Mail records over 10 years. E-Mail is not just a short-term problem. 
   

5. •Physical migration is a big problem. Only 30% declared they were doing it correctly at 3-5 year intervals. The rest of the sample group is placing their digital information at risk.
   

6. •60% of respondents say they are ‘highly dissatisfied’ that they will be able to read their retained information in 50 years.
   

7. •Help is needed – current practices are too manual, too prone to error, too costly and lack adequate coordination across the organization.
   

8. •Collaboration and classification were recognized as very important practices to get the organization working together setting requirements for the management of their information. More validation reinforcing the messages of the SNIA’s Data Management Forum (DMF) in its market educational efforts for Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)-based practices.
   

In this project, I conceived of the idea, designed the research and online survey, solicited participants and promoted the survey world-wide. Then, I reduced the results and designed and wrote the report. Since publishing, it has been one of the most downloaded reports in SNIA history. The report is recognized and respected as a seminal statement of requirements and formed the market requirements for formation of a technical working group on long-term retention standards and practices within SNIA.

-- Michael Peterson