Archive migrations are probably the most unpopular projects in the field of work of an IT-administrator. Due to high complexity there is a great danger of things going wrong and project schedules are quite often exceeded. Additionally, system downtimes can occur and costs may end up being significantly higher than expected.
The reasons for migrations of electronic archives are manifold: On the one hand, legal retention periods are for several decades, on the other hand storage technologies become obsolete after approx. 5 years.
Furthermore, the costs for support contracts required to keep the outdated storage hardware alive may increase over time. In addition, steadily increasing archiving volumes force companies to migrate present systems into new ones with higher capacities. To generally abandon archive systems is not an option as every responsible manager should be aware of the enormous risks for his company and himself related to such behaviour.
Such problems are being addressed by the product PoINT Storage Manager developed by PoINT Software & Systems GmbH. This solution allows transparent archive migrations in the background without interrupting the operation of any applications. This procedure is managed via several methods: By the standardized file system interface, (CIFS share of the PoINT VFS) the archiving hardware is abstracted for users and applications - therefore migration can be performed in an automated manner as background processes.
Another supported approach is the "migrate after Link" migration. Whereby, in the new archive system initial references ("links") are created which refer to the data in the old storage system. Thus direct access to already archived data via the new archive system is possible. In a second step, which is not time-critical, data is copied in the background - and these "links" are substituted with "real" data. Once the migration process has been finalized the obsolete storage system can be shut down. Depending on demand and concept the customers can decide whether to further use the advantages of the PoINT Storage Manager after migration or solely for migration purposes.
As each migration project depends on specific customer demands which cannot always be covered by the functionalities of the standard PoINT Storage Manager, PoINT also offers the implementation of specific product extensions or tools. If desired, the running of archive migration projects in close cooperation with PoINT is possible. Corresponding services, from project planning phase to realization and related support services, can be agreed individually.