Excel, PDFs, and Network Drives: Why File Systems Also Need Archiving
By Emanuel Böminghaus, Legacy Systems Expert and Managing Director, AvenDATA
By Emanuel Böminghaus
Legacy Systems Expert and
Managing Director, AvenDATA
Managing Director, AvenDATA
Unstructured Data: A Commonly Overlooked Risk
When companies discuss archiving, the focus is usually on traditional database applications such as ERP, finance, or HR systems. What’s often neglected, however, are the countless files created and stored outside these systems: Excel spreadsheets, PDF documents, Word files, PowerPoint presentations, and more. These reside on network drives, local machines, or shared file servers often lacking structure, oversight, and any formal archiving strategy.
Implications of Department Shutdowns on Data Management
When departments are closed, systems decommissioned or locations dissolved, it often results in leftover file structures that no one is responsible for. These unstructured data sets become legacy burdens posing legal, organizational and technological risks.
Overlooked Business-Critical Information
Although these files may appear informal, they frequently contain vital business content. Excel sheets may include personalized financial models or meeting notes, while PDFs might hold contracts, offers, or inspection reports. If such data is not archived properly, it can lead to legal non-compliance, data loss and a weakened foundation for informed decision-making.
Data Protection Challenges
A major concern is the presence of personal data within these unmanaged files such as employee records, job applications or health-related information. Without proper access controls, defined retention periods, and reliable deletion mechanisms, organizations face significant risks under data protection regulations.
Technical Incompatibility as a Time Bomb
The technical aspect is often underestimated. Old file formats, embedded macros, or proprietary applications can make important content unreadable or unusable within a few years. Without proper archiving, this leads to a gradual loss of accessibility and traceability.
What Professional Archiving Must Deliver
Professional archiving of unstructured file systems addresses these issues. Files are extracted from their original environments, analyzed, and transferred into a long-term, audit-proof structure. Ideally, content becomes searchable through automatic indexing and full-text search. Access rights, logging, retention, and deletion policies can be system-controlled to meet legal and data protection requirements.
Unstructured Data Is Audit-Relevant
It’s essential not to differentiate between structured and unstructured data during archiving. Both types are audit-relevant. Both must remain accessible long-term. And both may contain information critical for business development, audits, or legal proceedings.
A Core Element of IT Compliance
Companies should not only focus on their application systems but also consider legacy file storage. Archiving network drives, project folders and local media is not a side task it’s a key component of comprehensive IT compliance and knowledge preservation. Those who act early not only stay compliant but also secure valuable information for the future.
Planning to Archive a Legacy System?