Archiving corporate information is not a new concept, but the methods for doing so have dramatically changed. New information sources, such as e-mail, require organizations to save information much differently than in the past. Also, corporate archives are no longer stale volumes of data that an organization hopes it will never have to use. Regulators, litigators, auditors, and knowledge workers now need access to archived data and some pieces of information quicker than others.

This paper examines how data archiving has evolved form simply saving data to making sure information is readily available. It examines new technologies that are optimized for both data retention, as well as accessibility.