Essay 3: How much can I expect to get from a single application?

Blog Summary:

SvalTech, Inc. Essay Series

by Jack Olson

March, 2011

Summary of Essay 3:   How much can I expect to get from a single application?

Database Archiving returns value along three components: performance improvements, cost reduction and improved data governance.   The potential value that can be realized can vary significantly from one application to another.   The value actually realized is affected by how the application is implemented.

The primary factors that determine the potential value are:

               - type of application (operational or retired)

               - amount of data

               - required retention period

               - percentage of retention period time that the data is inactive

               - importance of preserving and protecting the data

               - resources required to keep inactive data in operational environment

For operational applications, the ideal application is one with very large amounts of data , high transaction rates of new data coming in, long retention periods, high percentage of inactive data and high importance to the business.  For retired applications, the ideal application benefits from long retention times and expensive resources that could be reclaimed or redeployed to other needs.   

The primary factors that determine whether the potential value is actually achieved are:

               - qualified staff

               - appropriate software and services

               - ability to achieve independence from operational environment

Failure to properly design an effective archiving solution for an application can cause all of the potential to be unrealized or, even worse, have a negative return.

The potential value of an application can be millions of dollars per year for a single application.  A large IT shop can have dozens of applications whose cost reductions exceed $1M per year.    Operational performance improvements can be dramatic with up to 80% of the data removed.   Reduction of recovery or disaster recovery times can be worth millions of dollars.

A good estimate of each the value components can usually be made. 

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