Question: We need to keep real-time remote backups of our Company’s database system. We also want to archive our RM documents for long-term retention. Are these two distinct problems or are they closely coupled and require an integrated solution?
Answer: These problems can certainly be decoupled, that is, remote backups and document archiving. If possible, however, it seems more efficient to find an integrated solution. Once a document is attached to a database, there is effort involved in modifying the document. For example, in a records management dbase system, modifications to a document are strictly controlled. All such modifications, e.g., adding OCR to scanned files, must be done through API calls to the RM dbase. This is done so that an audit log of all modifications is kept and available on demand. As a consequence, it is much easier to modify a document before it is entered into the dbase system and becomes a document of record.
The advantage of converting a document into whatever fornat is intended for long-term archiving early in the workflow process is not just to simplify attaching the file to the database. The leading format for document archiving is PDF, and its archival variant PDF/A. PDF supports long-term archiving (PDF/A), web-optimization for web-based hosting, and compression for fast data transfer and efficient storage. It is generally more efficient to convert corporate documents once, before archiving. If this document format supports compression then it is possible to greatly reduce the time required for offsite backups, as well as reduce the web-hosting costs which are typically based on the file size of the hosted data.
For example, PDF is probably the most common format used for document RM and archiving. But for scanned documents, PDF also supports JBIG2 and MRC compression, with file size reductions of up to 10x for bitonal files and up to 100x for color files. If conversion to PDF is done at the time of capture, or at least prior to database attachment, then compression, web-optimization, text-search, and meta data insertion call all be done once, while generating the PDF file; see, for example, http://www.cvisiontech.com/pdf_compressor_31.html. This PDF-based compression will allow faster real-time backups, cheaper web-hosting, and obviate the need to modify the document later for the purpose of archiving.
