Data Archiving Requirements 

Data archiving is intended to do more than simply save the contents of database tables. Data archiving must also take the following requirements into consideration:

·         Hardware independence
Because the encoding of numerical fields, such as integers, depends on the hardware being used, archiving must ensure that information about hardware is appended to the archived data so that the data can be displayed later with different hardware.

·         Release dependence
Because the data structure may depend on the release status of the mySAP Business Suite solution that you are using, record structure and field definition information must also be archived.

·         Data Dependencies
Many data objects depend on other data objects. Consequently, when archiving data, you must check whether, in order to archive a specific data object, another object must first be archived or whether other objects are to be archived at the same time.

·         Enterprise and business structure
Some data is only of use in conjunction with an enterprise’s organizational structure, such as how it is divided into different areas for sales. Archiving must therefore ensure that this information is also archived.

The above list shows that data archiving requires a detailed knowledge of data semantics and through its application integration, SAP Data Archiving has taken this aspect fully into account in its programs and functions. For this reason, SAP’s application-integrated archiving is superior to archiving products that are not integrated into mySAP Business Suite solutions (database tools).