Budgeting Considerations for Archiving Legacy Data
Archiving access and maintenance often operates at a small fraction
of traditional application costs. However, it is not free. Archiving expenses
not only include the on-going monthly access fees but the costs of developing
the initial archive as well such as extraction, design/development, and
access to subject matter expertise.
For each application to be archived, budget considerations include capital
and operational expenses.
Year 1 implementation, capital expenses:
- Extraction: The complexity (and therefore cost) of capturing data
from the legacy application system can vary dramatically depending
on the type of database, its location, and the support received from
the legacy application vendor. There are costs associated with each
of these methods.
- Legacy vendor contract: In some cases, there may be fees associated
with canceling a support / maintenance contract with a legacy application
vendor. Sites must decide when to cancel support and budget for any
related fees.
- Vendor implementation/storage fee: While every effort will be made
to design and develop the original legacy archive application to a
minimally viable product, reducing the need for extra screens and
standard reports, it is likely prudent to budget for potential audit
/ legal reporting. Large numbers of images will also require additional
storage fees.
- Consultant costs: In cases where internal subject matter expertise
is no longer available, sites may need to budget to secure consultants
and/or contractors to provide that expertise throughout the archive
project.
Year 2 and beyond, operational expenses paid to vendor
- Annual data access fee
- Image data storage space above the initial reserve may be charged
additional monthly fees
- Emergency process fee for ad hoc audit response reports requiring
immediate turn-around
- Supplemental fees for non-emergent ad hoc reports may apply if
writing the report requires more time than the vendor contract allows