WVU will be retiring many systems as we modernize the student, faculty and staff experience, and the move to new technology platforms raises the question of what to do with data in the legacy systems.
Keeping historical data has costs and risks, as well as benefits. There are migration, storage and maintenance expenses associated with retaining data. Retention also creates liability risks to the institution, including inadvertent disclosure or data breaches.
A Data Retention project team is finding the right balance, determining what legacy data will be preserved and for how long. Data that is retained for a defined amount of time will either be stored in the new systems or in another repository. WVU will keep things with a clear, relevant purpose such as complying with data-retention, audit and compliance requirements.
This project crosses the Workday Business Modernization and WVU Research Administration Portal (WRAP) initiatives and will examine the data-retention needs for systems that are being retired. This work involves three groups of experts:
- Data Stewards make decisions and are held accountable for the data in their domain.
- Data Custodians are responsible for enforcing the rules that the Data Stewards put in place.
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have the knowledge of the domain and how data are being applied and used.
The team is using the University Retention Schedule as the baseline for each type of data outlined. Data owners are encouraged to review the Record Retention Policy and schedule for their respective areas.