Enterprise Data & Compliance Glossary
Explore technical definitions, regulatory frameworks, and architecture standards for enterprise data archiving and compliance.
Active Archive
An archive that keeps data online and immediately searchable and retrievable, as opposed to offline or cold storage that must be restored before it can be used.
Ad Hoc Reporting
Running flexible, on-demand reports against archived data from retired systems without needing the original application.
Application Consolidation
Merging the functions of multiple overlapping applications into fewer systems and retiring the redundant ones.
Application Data Archiving
Extracting and retaining data from business applications (ERP, CRM, and custom apps) in an independent archive, often as a step toward retiring the source application.
Application Decommissioning
Permanently shutting down a software application while preserving its data in an accessible, compliant archive, eliminating the cost and risk of running the legacy system.
Application Inventory
A catalog of every application in use; with owners, cost, and dependencies, that serves as the starting point for rationalization and retirement.
Application Portfolio Management (APM)
The ongoing discipline of inventorying, evaluating, and governing all applications to optimize cost, risk, and value.
Application Portfolio Rationalization
Assessing an organization's application inventory to decide which applications to keep, consolidate, replace, or retire.
Application Retirement
The planned end-of-life of an application, including archiving its data, cutting over users, and shutting down its infrastructure.
Archive Index
The searchable catalog of metadata and full-text content that lets users quickly locate specific records within a large archive.
Archive Storage
Purpose-built, low-cost, high-durability storage for retaining data over the long term, often with immutability and lifecycle policies.
Archive-as-a-Service
A managed, subscription-based archiving offering in which the provider hosts and operates the archive infrastructure on the customer's behalf.
ArchiveLink
The SAP interface that connects applications to external content or archive repositories for storing documents and archive files.
Auto-Expanding Archive
A Microsoft 365 feature that automatically adds storage to a mailbox archive as it fills, up to a large limit. It provides storage relief rather than governed retention.
Bit Rot
The gradual corruption of stored data over time due to media decay, mitigated by integrity checks and media refresh in long-term archives.
Business Object Archiving
A reconstructed, human-readable view of related data such as an invoice with its line items, from a retired system, so users need not run the original application to read records.
BW on HANA
SAP Business Warehouse running on the SAP HANA in-memory database, where controlling data volume directly reduces licensed memory cost.
Carve-Out
Separating a portion of an organization's systems and data for a divestiture or spin-off, then archiving or retiring what remains.
Chargeback
Allocating IT costs back to business units, which surfaces the expense of legacy systems and builds the case to retire them.
Cloud Migration
Moving applications and data from on-premise systems to the cloud, frequently paired with retiring legacy infrastructure.
Connector
A pre-built integration that extracts data from a specific source system, such as Microsoft 365, SAP, or a database, into an archive or data store.
Content Repository
A storage location, often reached via SAP ArchiveLink, where archived files or documents are physically stored and retrieved.
Cross-Source eDiscovery
Searching and producing records across every archived source (email, files, and application data) from one place, rather than running separate searches per silo.
Cutover
The point at which users stop using the legacy system and switch to the archive or replacement, after which the old system can be shut down.
Dark Data
Data an organization collects and stores but does not use - or even know it has, common in legacy systems and a risk during retirement.
Data Aging
An SAP technique that moves historical data from the hot in-memory area to a warm disk-based store within the same database, keeping it accessible without a separate archive.
Data Archiving Process (DAP)
In SAP BW, the object attached to an InfoProvider that defines what and how to archive, generating the archiving object used for ADK files and/or nearline storage.
Data Capture
The point at which data such as email or messages is collected into an archive, ideally in its original and complete form.
Data Center Consolidation
Reducing the number of data centers or servers, often enabled by decommissioning redundant applications and archiving their data.
Data Completeness
Assurance that every required record from a source system has been captured in the archive, with none missing.
Data Compression
Reducing the storage size of archived data with algorithms to lower cost; in SAP nearline storage it keeps cold data economical to retain.
Data Extraction
Pulling data and its structure out of a source application so it can be archived independently of the original system.
Data Freeze
Halting new transactions in a system being retired so its data can be extracted in a stable, final state.
Data Mapping
Defining how fields from a source system correspond to fields in the target archive or application, preserving meaning during migration.
Data Migration
Transferring data between systems, formats, or storage - a core task in decommissioning, modernization, and cloud moves.
Data Purging
The permanent, controlled deletion of data from an archive once its retention period expires and no legal hold applies.
Data Temperature
A classification of data by how frequently it is accessed (hot for frequent, warm for occasional, cold for rare), used to decide the appropriate storage tier.
Data Tiering Optimization (DTO)
A SAP BW/4HANA framework for managing hot, warm, and cold data across HANA memory, disk, and nearline or external storage.
Data Transformation
Converting extracted data into the structure, format, or model required by the target archive or system.
Data Validation
Confirming that data extracted from a source system is accurate and complete before the source is shut down.
Database Archiving
Moving historical rows and tables out of a production database into an archive to control database growth while keeping the data queryable.
Decommissioning Assessment
An evaluation of an application's data, dependencies, retention needs, and cost, used to plan and prioritize its retirement.
Decommissioning Plan
A documented, step-by-step plan, sometimes called a runbook; covering data extraction, validation, archiving, cutover, and shutdown for retiring a system.
Deduplication
Eliminating redundant copies of data so only one instance is stored, reducing archive storage footprint and cost.
Digital Preservation
The long-term protection of digital records against format obsolescence and media failure so they remain accessible and usable over time.
Divestiture
Separating and handing over or retaining, the data of a business unit being sold, often requiring archiving of the systems left behind.
End-of-Life (EOL)
The point at which a vendor stops supporting a product, creating security and compliance pressure to retire or replace it.
End-of-Support (EOS)
The date after which a vendor no longer provides patches or support for a product, distinct from full end-of-life.
ERP Decommissioning
Retiring a legacy ERP; for example after a merger or an S/4HANA move, while archiving its financial and operational records for compliance.
ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)
ETL is a three-stage data movement process for extracting, transforming & loading data into an archive while preserving its structure & provenance.
File Archiving
Moving inactive files off primary file servers into an archive with retention and search, reclaiming storage while preserving access.
Full-Text Search
Search that indexes the entire content of archived items, not just their metadata, enabling fast keyword retrieval across large volumes.
Go-Live
The point at which a new system or archive becomes the live environment for users.
Hot Data
Frequently accessed, performance-critical data that resides in the fastest and most expensive storage tier, such as in-memory in SAP HANA.
Hybrid Archiving
An archiving model that combines on-premise and cloud storage, letting organizations keep sensitive data local while using the cloud for scale and cost efficiency.
In-Place Archive
A secondary mailbox in Microsoft 365 or Exchange that provides extra storage; it offers storage relief but is not, by default, a compliance-grade archive.
InfoProvider
In SAP BW, an object such as an InfoCube, DataStore object, or aDSO that holds or provides data for reporting and is the unit archived by a Data Archiving Process.
IT Cost Optimization
Reducing IT spend, a primary business case for decommissioning by eliminating licenses, hardware, and support for retired systems.
Journaling
The automatic capture of a copy of every inbound, outbound, and internal message at the server level, feeding a complete, unaltered record into an email archive.
Legacy Application
An older software application still in use or kept alive only for its data; that is costly, risky, or difficult to maintain.
Legacy Data
Historical data created and held in older systems, frequently the reason a system must be archived before it can be retired.
Legacy Data Migration
Moving historical data out of a legacy system into a modern archive or target application as part of retirement.
Legacy System
An aging IT system, hardware or software, retained despite newer alternatives, often for the historical data it holds.
M&A Data Migration
Consolidating, archiving, or separating data inherited through mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures as duplicate systems are retired.
Modernization
Updating or replacing legacy systems with modern technology; decommissioning retires what modernization leaves behind.
Nearline Storage (NLS)
A storage tier between online (hot) and offline (archive) that keeps compressed, read-only data query-accessible without consuming primary database memory; in SAP BW it is delivered via SAP IQ Cold Store.
Read-Only Archive
An archive of a retired application's data that users can search and report on but cannot change, preserving it as an immutable record.
Reconciliation
Comparing source and archived data, record counts and control totals, to prove that nothing was lost or altered during decommissioning.
Redundant Application
An application whose function is duplicated elsewhere, making it a candidate for retirement.
Referential Integrity
Preserving the relationships between related data records during extraction and archiving so the data stays meaningful.
Rehosting (Lift and Shift)
Migrating an application to new infrastructure without changing its architecture.
Replatforming
Moving an application to a new platform, such as the cloud, with minimal code change and sometimes an alternative to retirement.
Retention-Aware Decommissioning
Retiring systems in a way that carries their data's legal and regulatory retention obligations into the archive, so records stay compliant after shutdown.
Structured Data Extraction
Extracting relational data together with its schema and relationships from a retiring application so records stay meaningful in the archive.
Sunset Date
The scheduled date on which an application will be retired and taken offline.
Sunsetting
The planned phase-out of an application or system, giving users advance notice before it is retired.
System of Record (SoR)
The authoritative source for a given data element; after retirement, an archive often becomes the system of record for the retired application's data.
System Shutdown
Powering off and de-provisioning the infrastructure of a retired application after its data is safely archived.
Technical Debt
The accumulated cost of maintaining outdated or suboptimal technology.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The full cost of owning and operating a system over its life: licenses, infrastructure, support, staff and a core driver of retirement decisions.
Zombie Application
An application still running and consuming resources despite having few or no active users, a prime retirement candidate.
