Data vaulting refers to the process of sending organizational data offsite. It aims to protect the data from theft, hardware failures, and other threats.
Data vaulting is commonly practiced by organizations that handle overly sensitive data that is prone to misuse and abuse. Third-party storage providers that offer data vaulting services compress, encrypt, and transmit data to a remote vault that uses remote backup services (RBSs).
Data vaulting is like keeping your most important personal files like passports, stock certificates, and deeds in a safety deposit box instead of your safe at home. That way, even if thieves break into your house and safe, your documents will remain secure.
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Like any technology, data vaulting has advantages and disadvantages.
What are the Advantages of Data Vaulting?
Should organizations practice data vaulting? Most data experts believe so because it provides several benefits, including:
1. Easy Data Retrieval and Addition
Data vaults are modeled after an organization’s domain structure. As such, the information stored in them retains its structure and formatting, allowing the company to easily retrieve and upload additional data from and to the vaults. Users don’t need to change the way they store information to send it to a data vault for safekeeping.
2. Big Data Support
Data vaults support real-time and batch loads. They allow big data uploads and downloads, which eases processes. Users don’t have to upload or download information in batches.
3. Eases Regulation Compliance
All organizations that handle sensitive data are required to adhere to government regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Data vaulting providers know and follow the same rules to store client information.
4. Allows Historical Traceability
When an organization succumbs to an attack and loses customer data, data vaulting allows it to trace which bits of information were lost or stolen easily by comparing the current database stored in-house with the copy before modification stored offsite (in a data vault).
What Are the Disadvantages of Data Vaulting?
While data vaulting has several benefits, it also comes with certain limitations that include:
1. Requires Denormalization
Data vaulting requires denormalization, a technique which can reduce the write speed (the speed at which users can upload data) to increase read speed (the rate at which users download data). Denormalization needs several storage devices, which can be costly. But because users can’t do without denormalization, they can opt for using cheap storage options.
2. Uses Too Many Joins
Data vaults require joins, which connect business processes or transactions with the right sources. Using so-called bridge tables, which correlate one data source with others, may ease this issue, though.
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Data vaulting is an excellent means for organizations to store data securely. But since it is still in the early stages, users can expect certain hurdles that proponents may only fix over time. For now, data vaulting requires an expert who can assess whether it would be beneficial for an organization or not.
