To effectively protect its information, an organization must balance the cost of the protection against the value of the information.

Corporations depend on the flow of information to conduct their business. From accounting to production to marketing to personnel, the information procured, generated, organized, and stored by an organization represents a significant portion of the output of its workforce. Protecting that information from unexpected disasters is not only prudent, in many cases, it's mandatory for legal and regulatory reasons.

The right approach involves a synthesis of appropriate policies, procedures, personnel, and products. This paper explores the design and implementations of such systems, and discusses many of the best practices that help such systems provide the best Return on Investment (ROI) for data archive solutions.