Data Management Glossary
Data Archiving
What is Data Archiving?
Data Archiving, often referred to as Data Tiering, protects older data that is not needed for everyday operations of an organization. A data archiving strategy reduces primary storage and allows an organization to maintain data that may be required for regulatory or other needs.
Benefits of a Data Archiving Solution
Data archiving protects older information that is not needed for everyday operations but which users may occasionally access. Data archiving tools deliver the most value by reducing primary storage costs, rather than acting as a data recovery tool. Unstructured data archive tools are in high demand because they can drastically reduce overall storage costs; most enterprise data is unstructured and resides on expensive, high-performance storage devices. Archive data storage, meanwhile, is typically on a low-performance, lost-cost, high-capacity data storage medium.
Types of Data Archiving
Some data archiving products only allow read-only access to protect data from modification, while other data tiering and archiving products allow users to make changes.
Data archiving take a few different forms:
- Options include online data storage, which places archive data onto disk systems where it is readily accessible. Archives are frequently file-based, but object storage is also growing in popularity. A key challenge when using object storage to archive file-based data is the impact it can have on users and applications. To avoid changing paradigms from file to object and breaking user and application access, use data management solutions that provide a file interface to data that is archived as objects.
- Another archival system uses offline data storage where data archiving software writes the data to tape or other removable media. using. Tape consumes less power than disk systems, translating to lower costs.
- A third option is using cloud data storage, offered by Amazon, Azure and other cloud providers. Cloud object storage is a smart choice for cloud tiering and data archiving because of its low-cost, immutable nature. This is inexpensive but requires ongoing investment.
New requirements for secure data archiving have resulted from more sophisticated cybersecurity and ransomware threats. Encryption of sensitive archives and multi-factor authentication for access and object lock storage (such as AWS S3) are a few ways to protect archival data from modification, corruption and theft.
The data archiving process typically uses automated software, which will automatically move cold data via policies set by an administrator. A popular approach is to make the archive “transparent” so that users and applications can access archived data from the same location as if it had never moved. (See Native Access)
Learn more about Komprise Transparent Move Technology (TMT)
Data Archiving FAQs
How is the Komprise approach to data tiering different than traditional data archiving?
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Data archiving is the process of moving data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage tier for long-term retention, compliance, or cost reduction. Archived data is typically kept for regulatory or reference purposes and is accessed infrequently. Traditional archiving solutions use proprietary formats that can create vendor lock-in and slow or costly retrieval processes. Modern alternatives like Komprise Intelligent Data Management replace legacy archiving with intelligent tiering that keeps data accessible without rehydration penalties or proprietary dependencies. Komprise Transparent Move Technology (TMT) moves data to any cloud or object storage destination while keeping it accessible in its native format from its original path. No rehydration, no format conversion, no vendor dependency.
What is the difference between storage-based tiering and Komprise Intelligent Tiering?
Most enterprise storage arrays include a built-in tiering capability that moves data at the block level based on I/O frequency. This works well for structured workloads but has no awareness of what a file contains, who owns it, or what it means to the business. Komprise Intelligent Tiering operates at the file level, with full visibility into file metadata, ownership, age, type, and custom business context. This enables far more precise, policy-driven decisions about where unstructured data should live.
| Capability | Storage-Based Tiering | Komprise Intelligent Tiering |
|---|---|---|
| Tiering granularity | Block level | File and object level |
| Business context awareness | None | Full metadata, owner, type, age, tags |
| Multi-vendor NAS support | Single vendor only | All major NAS and cloud vendors |
| Data format on destination | Proprietary or stubbed | Native format, always |
| Rehydration required | Often yes | Never |
| Vendor lock-in | High | None |
| Policy flexibility | Limited, I/O based | Granular, business-context driven |
| Searchable after tiering | No | Yes, via Global Metadatabase |
| AI and analytics ready | No | Yes, data always in native format |
| Destination flexibility | Same vendor storage only | Any cloud or object storage |
What types of data are typically archived or tiered?
The most common candidates for tiering are files and objects that have not been accessed in 90 days or more, which typically represents 60-70% of most enterprise NAS environments. This includes completed project files, historical records, compliance data, large media assets, research datasets, and log files. Komprise Deep Analytics identifies exactly which data in your environment qualifies by scanning access patterns, file types, ownership, and age across multi-vendor NAS and cloud storage, then applies tiering policies automatically so cold data moves off primary flash without manual intervention.
Why does native format matter for AI, analytics and long-term data value?
When data is tiered using proprietary stub files or vendor-specific formats, it becomes effectively invisible to AI models, analytics tools, and any application that did not originate from that vendor. This is a growing problem as enterprises invest in AI pipelines, data lakehouses, and semantic search tools that need to read raw file and object data directly. Komprise Transparent Move Technology stores all tiered data in its original native format on open, standards-based object storage. This means a file tiered to AWS S3, Azure Blob, or any object store remains directly readable by any AI pipeline, analytics platform, or business application without any intermediary layer, rehydration step, or format conversion. Data tiered today remains a first-class asset for AI workflows tomorrow.
How does cloud archiving with Komprise differ from using native cloud archive tiers directly?
Cloud providers offer deep archive tiers like AWS Glacier and Azure Archive at very low per-GB storage costs, but retrieval can take hours and egress fees can be substantial. Using these tiers directly without an intelligent data management layer means no visibility into what is archived, no metadata-based search, and no lifecycle management across multiple storage environments. Komprise manages cloud archiving as part of a unified tiering strategy, tracking all data in the Global Metadatabase regardless of which storage tier it occupies. Data tiered to Glacier or Azure Archive remains searchable, its location and metadata are known, it is always stored in native format, and policies can be applied to automatically restore, migrate, or delete it based on access, age, or compliance triggers.