Temporary Storage Is Not Archiving: The Five Most Common Misconceptions in System Decommissioning and Legacy Data Archiving
By Emanuel Böminghaus, Legacy Systems Expert and Managing Director, AvenDATA
By Emanuel Böminghaus
Legacy Systems Expert
and Managing Director, AvenDATA
and Managing Director, AvenDATA
When systems are decommissioned and applications shut down or historical data is offloaded, companies often take a pragmatic approach: copying everything to a server, backing up a database or storing folders externally. However, this overlooks the critical difference between simple storage and legally compliant archiving.
In practice, companies frequently encounter the same misconceptions when it comes to archiving legacy data during system decommissioning. These misunderstandings not only pose legal risks but also lead to long-term issues with data access, productivity and IT security. Here’s an overview of the five most common misconceptions:
Misconception 1: "A Backup Is Enough"
A backup is designed for technical recovery in emergencies, not for long-term, audit-proof data retention. It operates cyclically, overwrites itself regularly and is not intended to keep individual records accessible, unchanged and structured over many years.
After system decommissioning, a backup alone is insufficient to meet audit requirements or legal obligations. An archiving system, on the other hand, logs access, prevents post-storage modifications and ensures that data remains readable, interpretable and usable even years later.
Misconception 2: "Only Databases Need to Be Archived"
Many assume that archiving after system shutdown only applies to database content such as transaction records or customer master data. But this view is too narrow. Unstructured content like emails, PDFs, Word documents or Excel files also fall under retention and documentation requirements. In decommissioned systems, these are often scattered across file shares, network drives or local archives.
This issue is especially evident in ERP systems: exporting only the database omits the business context. The actual business logic processes, rules and relationships that give meaning to the data also is lost in simple storage. Without it, much of the data becomes neither understandable nor audit-relevant.
Misconception 3: "PDF Is Automatically Audit-Proof"
PDFs are often used as a convenient format for archiving. However, a PDF alone does not guarantee audit-proof storage. What matters is not the format itself, but the overall setup. Was the document stored in a tamper-proof way? Is access properly logged? Is there a verified deletion policy?
During system decommissioning, it is essential to check whether such documents have been transferred into a suitable archiving system. Only then can long-term legal compliance be ensured.
Misconception 4: "We Store the Data Externally – That’s Enough"
External hard drives or cloud storage may seem like practical solutions for storing data after system shutdown. But they typically do not meet legal archiving standards. Without structured metadata, audit trails, deletion rules and access controls, this results in simple digital storage, not a compliant archive.
This approach also raises data protection concerns, as personal data may be stored without sufficient safeguards in uncertified environments. System decommissioning must not become informal data disposal.
Misconception 5: "As long as someone has access, everything is fine"
After a system is shut down, there are often still isolated access points through old admin credentials or local copies. This does not replace a structured archiving solution. When staff changes, software stops working or hardware fails, access to the data is lost along with the data itself.
Archiving ensures long-term availability of data regardless of the original system. Relying on someone being able to open it later risks losing important information needed for audits or legal purposes.
Conclusion: System shutdown is more than a technical step. It requires clear archiving and deletion strategies
Temporary storage is not archiving. Especially during system shutdown, careful planning is essential. It is important to define what needs to be retained, what can be deleted and how data can be archived in a structured, legally compliant, audit-ready and removable format.
ERP systems clearly show that without the underlying application logic, the business context is lost. Simply backing up the database is not enough to support future audits, legal inquiries or proper deletion of personal data once its retention period ends under GDPR.
Archiving is not a side task. It is a core part of every system shutdown and the foundation for ensuring that information can be used, understood and securely deleted in the future when needed.
Planning to archive a legacy system?