In today’s world, organizations are under more pressure than ever to carefully store and manage data, with an increasing number of compliance regulations requiring organizations to comply with restrictive and specific data retention policies in a significant and secure manner. These regulations include some of the better-known regulations including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, with mandates that include the specific length of time that data must by maintained, the way data is managed and stored, and when it should be securely deleted. Therefore, having a clear and enforceable data retention policy is important to achieving compliance, reducing risk, and improving operational efficiency.
A solid policy helps organizations: manage storage costs, minimize the risks of a data breach, provide an audit-ready record of compliance, and achieve the organization’s objectives. In addition, a strong data retention policy can improve operational efficiency and reduce redundant data while creating continuity of operations in the event of an unforeseen event.
Important Steps to Create a Data Retention Policy
1. Identify Regulations and Standards
Before you can start creating a retention policy that is compliant, you need to understand the regulatory environment. All companies have to figure out from all local, national and international organizations, which regulations will apply to their data.
- Find out what the retention timelines for records and information are, according to each regulation.
- Find out what kinds of records and information require an audit or reporting.
- Confirm you have a policy that complies with industry standards, like HIPAA for healthcare data, or PCI DSS for payment processing.
2. Categorize Data
Categorizing data gives you a good measure of the depth of protection and retention.
- You should be able to categorize data into either critical, sensitive, or general types.
- Map your data to departments, applications, and systems to better manage it.
- Provide clear ownership for every type of data so you can hold people accountable.
Example: Hard copies of a customer’s personal information may require encryption and a long retention time, while a temporary operational log in an electronic format does not.
3. Establish Retention Periods
Define explicit duration of time required for retention to improve the regulations of having data you do not need or destroying data sooner than you should.
- Retentions can be defined on a variety of factors, such as legal requirements, operational requirements, or historical value.
- Establish end dates, archival dates, and dates due for destruction.
- Keep distinctions between active and archived data to ensure optimal storage.
4. Establish Storage and Backup Protocols
Retention policies are only effective if you have reliable storage and backup systems in place.
- Choose storage environments: on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid.
- Utilize automated backup systems, including immutable storage, to prevent tampering and loss of data.
- Make sure backup frequency is consistent with your retention policy time frames and compliance obligations.
For example, critical financial records may be backed up daily and archived for multi-year records.
5. Protect Data and Control Access
Protection and access control are necessary for compliance and data reliability.
- Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to limit unauthorized access.
- Encrypt data at rest and in transit to prevent breaches.
- Regularly audit access logs to identify unusual patterns of activity.
6. Automate Retention and Deletion
Manually implementing retention policies is prone to error. Automation allows consistency to be implemented to reduce error.
- Implement scripts or data management tools to automate retention periods.
- Automation should ensure secure deletion of discarded data while preserving the audit trail.
- Ensure that deleted data can never be recovered and is logged accordingly to satisfy compliance purposes.
7. Monitor and Adapt Policies
Retention policies must also evolve over time to keep pace with regulatory, business, and technological developments.
- You should periodically review your policies to reflect any new regulations or changes in operation.
- Audit and Compliance checks should be conducted to review if your policies are being followed accurately.
- Your data governance framework should continuously improve to maintain the reduced risk level.
Data Retention Policy Good Practices
1. Ensure legislation, policies, and practices that shape your retention policies align with and support the organization’s operational objectives.
2. Clearly document and communicate policies with staff in a way that they understand their responsibilities with regards to retention policies, because the organization is only compliant if the staff comply with the policies.
3. Explore backup, retention, and archiving practices that automate the enforcement of your retention policies.
4. Train all staff on the organization’s approach to data handling, data retention, and data deletion practices.
5. Actively monitor and audit compliance, through the use of monitoring tools to ensure staff maintain compliance and to ensure the organization remains audit-ready.
How Empirical Edge can help
At Empirical Edge, we assist companies in both implementing and enforcing formal data retention policies, and provide end-to-end delivery. Our services include:
- Data retention-inspired scheduled, automated, and secure backup.
- Immutable storage solutions for immutable data protection.
- Cloud-based and hybrid backup according to scalability and durability.
- Backup systems are compliant, secure, and comprehensive – ready for GDRP, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.
- Disaster Recovery Planning and Audit-Ready Reporting.
By partnering with Empirical Edge, you’ll ensure that your data retention policies are compliant, operationally efficient, secure, and future-proofed, allowing your organization to focus on growth and innovation.
Learn more about our Database Backup Services.
- Expanded Insights: More than just compliance
- Cost savings: Defined retention policies quickly reduce storage costs by clearing redundant or expired data.
- Improved business agility: By defining retention policies, data will be more readily accessible, positively impacting reporting, analytics, and overall strategic decision-making.
- Disaster Recovery (improvement): Retention policies will mirror backup schedules allowing organizations to recover faster during major system outages and/or cyber-attacks.
- Cross-department governance: Retention will provide a consistent practice for all business functions, thus cutting down on inappropriate practises.
- Future-proofing: Retention policies can emulate augmented or decreased technology, including cloud-enabled automation and immutable storage, keeping pace as regulations evolve.
Conclusion
Building a robust data retention policy is no longer optional—it is essential for regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and risk management. By classifying data, defining retention periods, implementing secure storage, automating enforcement, and continuously monitoring compliance, organizations can safeguard critical information and reduce exposure to legal and operational risks.
Partnering with Empirical Edge allows businesses to implement secure, automated, and compliance-ready retention policies, future-proofing data management while supporting seamless growth and operational resilience.
